Ionising Radiation Effects on MOSFET Drain Current

We have investigated the radiation effect on MOSFET performances due to the incidence of a few ions in the gate area. We present new experimental evidence that a single ion may lead to the MOSFET drain current collapse, due to the formation of a localized oxide damaged region over a large portion of the channel width, well before the breakdown onset. We call these phenomena single event drain current collapse (SEDC2). This effect is evident in devices with small channel width (W), i.e., comparable to the size of damaged region, and fades as W increases over the size of the ion damaged region. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.