Standard Practice for Characterizing Neutron Fluence Spectra in Terms of an Equivalent Monoenergetic Neutron Fluence for Radiation Hardness Testing of Electronics

Importancia y uso:

5.1 This practice is important in characterizing the radiation hardness of electronic devices irradiated by neutrons. This characterization makes it feasible to predict some changes in operational properties of irradiated semiconductor devices or electronic systems. To facilitate uniformity of the interpretation and evaluation of results of irradiations by sources of different fluence spectra, it is convenient to reduce the incident neutron fluence from a source to a single parameter—an equivalent monoenergetic neutron fluence—applicable to a particular semiconductor material.

5.2 In order to determine an equivalent monoenergetic neutron fluence, it is necessary to evaluate the displacement damage of the particular semiconductor material. Ideally, this quantity is correlated to the degradation of a specific functional performance parameter (such as current gain) of the semiconductor device or system being tested. However, this correlation has not been established unequivocally for all device types and performance parameters since, in many instances, other effects also can be important. Ionization effects produced by the incident neutron fluence or by gamma rays in a mixed neutron fluence, short-term and long-term annealing, and other factors can contribute to observed performance degradation (damage). Thus, caution should be exercised in making a correlation between calculated displacement damage and performance degradation of a given electronic device. The types of devices for which this correlation is applicable and numerical evaluation of displacement damage are discussed in the annexes.

5.3 The concept of 1 MeV equivalent fluence is widely used in the radiation hardness testing community. It has merits and disadvantages that have been debated widely (9-12). For these reasons, specifics of a standard application of the 1 MeV equivalent fluence are presented in the annexes.

Subcomité:

E10.07

Referida por:

F0980-16R24, E0721-22, E3084-17R22E01, E1855-20, F1190-24, E0170-24, E2450-23, E1854-26, E0261-16R21

Volúmen:

12.02

Número ICS:

31.080.01 (Semi-conductor devices in general)

Palabras clave:

displacement damage; electronic hardness; gallium arsenide; hardness parameter; silicon; silicon damage; silicon equivalent damage (SED); 1 MeV equivalent fluence;