RADIATION EFFECTS IN III-V SEMICONDUCTOR ELECTRONICS

Abstract

Particle irradiation effects in III-V semiconductor devices and selected circuits are reviewed. Radiation effects concerns in III-V devices are associated primarily with displacement damage and single-event upset. In conventional transistors, displacement damage decreases the gain, increases leakage and shifts the collector-emitter offset voltage. In reduced dimensional devices. such as high electron mobility transistors and resonant tunneling diodes, the main displacement damage effect is to reduce current by increasing scattering out of the two-dimensional transport state. The current understanding of single-event effects in III-V circuits and devices, and approaches for mitigating their impact, are also discussed here. Single-event effects are a serious concern for high-speed III-V semiconductor devices operating in radiation-intense environments. GaAs integrated circuits (ICs) based on field effect transistor technology exhibit single-event upset sensitivity to protons and very low linear energy transfer (LET) particles; this sensitivity becomes more significant as clock rates and operating speeds increase.