Impact of displacement damage on single event transient charge collection in SiGe HBTs

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents an investigation into the impact of neutron-induced displacement damage on the single event transient (SET) charge collection in silicon–germanium heterojunction bipolar transistors (SiGe HBT) based on pulsed laser micro-beam experiment and technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulation. Experimental results show that the transient charge collection of the collector terminal decreases after neutron irradiation with a fluence of 5 × 1013 n/cm2 . In addition, the decrease of charge collection is more significant outside the collector–substrate (C–S) junction than inside. Combining with the TCAD simulation results, it is confirmed that the minority carrier lifetime which is shortened by neutron-induced defects plays an important role in the decrease of charge collection, and the disparity between the decreases of charge collection outside and inside the C–S junction is related to the dominating collection mechanism and transient duration.