Displacement damage in bipolar linear integrated circuits

The effects of proton and gamma radiation are compared for several types of integrated circuits with complex internal design and failure modes that ar e not as straightforward as the input bias current mechanism that is freque ntly used to study damage effects in linear devices. New circuit failure me chanisms were observed in voltage regulators that, cause them to fail at mu ch lower levels when they are irradiated with protons compared to tests wit h gamma rays at equivalent total dose levels. Protons caused much larger ch anges in output voltage than tests with gamma rays,which limits the maximum radiation level of some types of voltage regulators in environments domina ted by protons.