Transient breakdown behavior in electron-irradiated and proton-irradiated silicon p–n junctions

We studied the turn-off transient behavior of electron- and proton-irradiated silicon p–n junction diodes. Electron-irradiated n+–p diodes showed transient current peaks at lower reverse voltages. When the forward current was increased, the height and the number of the peaks increased, and at each peak the diode voltage showed a sharp decrease. We explain that the increased ionization coefficients by the electron irradiation caused the current peak to appear during the turn-off transients. p+–n diodes irradiated under the same condition did not show the large peak. This suggests that only the defects in the p-type silicon are responsible for the current peaks.