Neutron irradiation effects on standard and oxygenated silicon diodes

Abstract

Silicon diodes processed on standard and oxygenated silicon substrates by two different manufacturers have been irradiated by neutrons in a nuclear reactor and by the /sup 9/Be(d,n)/sup 10/B nuclear reaction. The leakage current density (J/sub D/) increase is linear with the neutron fluence. J/sub D/ and its annealing curve at 80/spl deg/C do not present any sizeable dependence on substrate oxygenation and/or manufacturing process. On the contrary, standard devices from one manufacturer present the lowest acceptor introduction rate (/spl beta/) for the effective substrate doping concentration (N/sub eff/), showing that the /spl beta/ dependence on the particular process can be important, overtaking the small substrate oxygenation effect. Finally, the average saturation value of the N/sub eff/ reverse annealing is slightly lower for the oxygenated samples, pointing out a positive effect of the substrate oxygenation even for devices irradiated by neutrons.