Effect of Precursor Defects in Oxide Layer on Ionizing Radiation Damage of Bipolar Junction Transistors

The oxide-layer process temperature affects the intrinsic precursor defects of NPN bipolar junction transistors (BJTs). These defects cannot be characterized after manufacturing, while they can be characterized by radiation. In this paper, the defect states, action forms, action effects on ionizing radiation damage, and the relationship between oxide-layer process temperature and defects are investigated. Based on the simulation and experiment results, a novel mechanism is proposed, which can illustrate the relationship between the oxide-layer process temperature and the precursor defects. That is, the higher the oxide-layer process temperature is, the more the deep-level defects are, the fewer the shallow-level defects are, and then the smaller the ionizing radiation damage is. This rule works at different hydrogen (H2) concentration. By means of studying the relationship between oxide-layer process temperature and precursor defects, it can help to remove the precursor defects and improve the quality of devices, and further provide ideas for radiation hardening.