Time Dependent Dose Enhancement Effects on Integrated Circuit Transient Response Mechanisms

This paper examines the physical mechanisms which affect transient photocurrent generation and dose enhancement in integrated circuit structures and presents data which indicate that both the magnitude and time-dependence of the observed transient response can be a function of the time-dependent photon energy spectrum produced by Flash X-ray simulators. The existence of these previously unrecognized phenomena indicate that IC dose-rate response can differ between low- and high-energy Flash X-ray sources and x-ray or gamma-ray environments produced by nuclear weapons due to these effects in addition to the more widely known dose-enhancement phenomenon. Implications regarding simulation fidelity, radiation hardening and hardness assurance are discussed.