Incident particle range dependence of radiation damage in a power bipolar junction transistor

The characteristic degradations in silicon NPN bipolar junction transistors（BJTs） of type 3DD155 are examined under the irradiations of 25-MeV carbon（C）,40-MeV silicon（Si）,and 40-MeV chlorine（Cl） ions respectively.Different electrical parameters are measured in-situ during the exposure of heavy ions.The experimental data shows that the changes in the reciprocal of the gain variation（（1/β）） of 3DD155 transistors irradiated respectively by 25-MeV C,40-MeV Si,and 40-MeV Cl ions each present a nonlinear behaviour at a low fluence and a linear response at a high fluence.The（1/β） of 3DD155 BJT irradiated by 25-MeV C ions is greatest at a given fluence,a little smaller when the device is irradiated by 40-MeV Si ions,and smallest in the case of the 40-MeV Cl ions irradiation.The measured and calculated results clearly show that the range of heavy ions in the base region of BJT affects the level of radiation damage.