Research of total ionizing dose effects in silicon bipolar devices and circuits

As silicon bipolar devices and circuits have different radiation effects from other types of circuits, such as enhanced low dose rate sensitivity, this article analyzes the space radiation environment, Al shield effect, the total ionizing dose radiation damage mechanism and the principle, rule, and electrical parameters change by enhanced low dose rate radiation sensitivity of bipolar devices and circuits. The radiation experiment in lab with several typical bipolar devices and circuits indicates that the important parameters of the bipolar devices and circuits are greatly influenced by total ionizing dose radiation, especially by low dose rate radiation, with the enhancement factors of low dose rate radiation mostly more than 1.5.Different bipolar devices and circuits have different enhanced low dose rate sensitivity, which is mainly due to device types and manufacture process (such as oxidation layer thickness).