Gl. Hash et al., PROTON IRRADIATION EFFECTS ON ADVANCED DIGITAL AND MICROWAVE III-V COMPONENTS, IEEE transactions on nuclear science, 41(6), 1994, pp. 2259-2266
A wide range of advanced III-V components suitable for use in high-spe
ed satellite communication systems were evaluated for displacement dam
age and single-event effects in high-energy, high-fluence proton envir
onments. Transistors and integrated circuits (both digital and MMIC) w
ere irradiated with protons at energies from 41 to 197 MeV and at flue
nces from 10(10) to 2x10(14) protons/cm(2). Large soft-error rate were
measured for digital GaAs MESFET (3x10(-5) errors/bit-day) and hetero
junction bipolar circuits (10(-5) errors/bit-day). No transient signal
s were detected from MMIC circuits. The largest degradation in transis
tor response caused by displacement damage was observed for 1.0-mu m d
epletion- and enhancement-mode MESFET transistors. Shorter gate length
MESFET transistors and HEMT transistors exhibited less displacement-i
nduced damage. These results show that memory-intensive GaAs digital c
ircuits may result in significant system degradation due to single-eve
nt upset in natural and man-made space environments. However, displace
ment damage effects should not be a limiting factor for fluence levels
up to 10(14) protons/cm(2) [equivalent to total doses in excess of 10
Mrad(GaAs)].