Simulating Radiation-Induced Defects on Semiconductor Devices

Abstract

Exploring semiconductor lifetime, reliability and performance is a never-ending science for today's modern electronics. One significant problem that affects all of these areas is radiation-induced damage. Making calculations to determine how semiconductor devices will hold up in radiation-harsh environments has to be achieved in order to determine system lifetime once placed in their operational capacity. Today's high-technology investments in such areas as satellite design, medical advances, military and commercial hardware, demand thorough understanding in radiation damage. Modeling semiconductor devices with computer-based simulation will provide a cost and time savings over a repetitive design and testing sequence. This thesis models and simulates an industry standard solar cell and a light a light emitting diode (LED), using the SILVACO ATLAS(trade mark) computer-based program. Using this software, theses simulations are generated based on known radiation-induced defects on gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductive devices derived from Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) studies. A comparison is then made with another radiation-induced damage prediction method, known as Non-Ionizing Energy Loss (NIEL), to see if the SILVACO ATLAS(trade mark) models can be used as an alternative.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA427182

Entities

People

  • Dewey C. Gladney

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Satellites
  • Compound Semiconductors
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Crystal Lattices
  • Electronics Industry
  • Energy Bands
  • Energy Gaps
  • Energy Transfer
  • Gallium Arsenides
  • Light Emitting Diodes
  • Radiation Effects
  • Semiconductor Devices
  • Semiconductors
  • Solar Cells
  • Solar Energy
  • Spreadsheet Software

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Nuclear and Radiation Engineering.
  • Semiconductor Device Technology
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space