SiGe Bipolar Transistors for Harsh Radiation Environments

Abstract

We have performed radiation hardness studies over three different SiGe HBT technologies from IHP (Innovation for High Performance Microelectronics). We have studied gamma and neutron irradiations to study separately ionization and displacement effects. The specific application for which these technologies are being evaluated is the front-end readout electronics of the detector modules of the future ATLAS upgrade for the Super-LHC, but space-oriented applications are also considered. It can be seen from the results strong gain degradations for the highest doses and fluencies, and an indication of damage saturation in some cases. Only small differences can be observed among the three different technologies with respect to their radiation hardness.