Ionizing Radiation Hardness of GaAs Technologies

The radiation response of several GaAs technologies to ionizing radiation has been investigated. Self-aligned gate (SAG) E/D GaAs Metal Semiconductor FET (MESFET), SAG AlGaAs/GaAs Modulation Doped FET (MODFET), and complementary-AlGaAs/GaAs Heterostructure Insulated Gate FET (C-HIGFET) devices and circuits all demonstrated minimal sensitivity to total dose effects to 250 Mrad(GaAs). The heterostructure based technologies showed superior tolerance to high dose rate exposures, with upset levels exceeding 1×1010 rads(GaAs)/s.