Advanced SiGe BiCMOS Technology for Multi-Mrad Electronic Systems

The total ionizing dose response of both CMOS transistors and SiGe HBTs implemented without utilizing any radiation hardening by design techniques in Jazz Semiconductor's SBC-18-HXL BiCMOS technology platform is evaluated. The SiGe HBTs remain functional up to the 6 Mrad(SiO2) dose levels needed to support multi-Mrad exploration missions such as NASA's Europa mission. The CMOS devices are also functional to this extreme total dose. The nFETs exhibit significantly reduced shallow trench isolation leakage compared with nFETs implemented in prior SiGe BiCMOS processes. Both nFETs and pFETs show negligible transconductance and on-current degradation. We conclude that this SiGe process technology is a potential candidate for implementing reliable and survivable multi-Mrad total ionizing dose-hard electronic systems.