The effects of proton irradiation on the performance of high-voltage n-MOSFETs implemented in a low-voltage SiGe BiCMOS platform

This paper presents the first comprehensive investigation of the impact of proton irradiation on the performance of high-voltage (HV) nMOS transistors implemented in a low-voltage (LV) SiGe BiCMOS technology. The effects of irradiation gate bias, irradiation substrate bias, and operating substrate bias on the radiation response of these transistors are examined. Experimental results show that the radiation-induced subthreshold leakage current under different irradiation biasing conditions remains negligible after exposure to a total dose of 600 krad(Si). We find that there are differences in the radiation response of LV and HV MOSFETs, suggesting that the mechanisms involved in causing degradation in LV and HV transistors could be of fundamentally different origins. Index Terms--High-voltage CMOS transistors, ionization damage, MOSFET, SiGe, total dose radiation effects.