Effects of Pulse Nuclear Radiation on Step Recovery Diodes

摘要

The nuclear radiation effects on the reverse breakdown voltage, reverse leakage current, series resistance, transition time, storage time, and carrier lifetime of two step recovery diodes were measured. Twenty-millisecond triangular radiation pulses with fluences, above 10 kev of 6.5 x 10 to the 11th to 7.5 x 10 to the 13th power neutrons per square centimeter were used to provide a total fluence of 2.6 x 10 to the 14th power. Of the diode parameters mentioned, only the minority carrier lifetime (which is a fundamental parameter that determines the storage time) was measureably affected by the radiation. A simple radiation damage model was used to generate a functional relationship between the carrier lifetime and neutron fluence. The theoretically predicted lifetimes were so nearly equal to measured ones over the range of lifetime and fluence levels tested, that accurate, real-time, remote-reading fluence measurements could probably be made using this step recovery diode as a transducer. (Author)