Universal damage factor for radiation-induced dark current in silicon devices

A new damage factor formulation is presented for describing radiation-induced dark current in silicon devices. This damage factor, K/sub dark/, is the number of carriers thermally generated per unit volume per unit time in a depletion region per unit nonionizing dose deposited in that volume. K/sub dark/ appears to account successfully for the mean radiation-induced dark current for any silicon device in which thermal generation at bulk centers dominates. This dark-current damage factor applies for devices in all radiation environments except those that produce relatively isolated defects. Evidence is presented which strongly indicates that the defects responsible for dark current increases are not associated with impurities.