High energy particle irradiation effects on the low-frequency noise of Czochralski silicon junction diodes

Abstract

The effect of high energy particle irradiation on the low-frequency (LF) noise behavior of forward biased Czochralski (Cz) silicon p-n junction diodes is reported. It is shown that in the near-ideal diode region, the LF noise is hardly affected by up to 2×1011 cm−2 MeV proton (H+) and by up to 1015cm−2 MeV electron (e−) irradiations, respectively, and is therefore resistent to both bulk and ionization radiation damage. At higher injection levels, where the forward current and LF noise are series resistance dominated, a clear increase of the noise can be observed due to the high energy particle irradiation, which mainly creates displacement damage in the bulk of the wafer. The same noise observations hold for 60Co γ-irradiated Cz n+p diodes, which were performed for comparison purposes. In the latter case, the main degradation source is ionization damage in the peripheral lateral oxide isolation regions, as shown by reverse current and gated diode measurements.