DEPENDENCE OF TOTAL-DOSE RESPONSE OF BIPOLAR LINEAR MICROCIRCUITS ON APPLIED DOSE-RATE

The effect of dose rate on the total dose radiation hardness of three commercial bipolar linear microcircuits is investigated. Total dose te sts of linear bipolar microcircuits show larger degradation at 0.167 r ad/s than at 90 rad/s even after the high dose rate test is followed b y a room temperature plus a 100 degrees C anneal. No systematic correl ation could be found for degradation at low dose rate versus high dose rate and anneal. Comparison of the low dose rate with the high dose r ate anneal data indicates that MIL-STD-883, Method 1019.4 is not a wor st-case test method when applied to bipolar microcircuits for low dose rate space applications.