ASTM International

Standard Guide for Ionizing Radiation (Total Dose) Effects Testing of Semiconductor Devices
 N F1892

Annotation

This guide presents background and guidelines for establishing an appropriate sequence of tests and data analysis procedures for determining the ionizing radiation (total dose) hardness of microelectronic devices for dose rates below 300 rd(SiO2)/s. These tests and analysis will be appropriate to assist in the determination of the ability of the devices under test to meet specific hardness requirements or to evaluate the parts for use in a range of radiation environments.

The methods and guidelines presented will be applicable to characterization, qualification, and lot acceptance of siliconbased MOS and bipolar discrete devices and integrated circuits. They will be appropriate for treatment of the effects of electron and photon irradiation.

This guide provides a framework for choosing a test sequence based on general characteristics of the parts to be tested and the radiation hardness requirements or goals for these parts.

This guide provides for tradeoffs between minimizing the conservative nature of the testing method and minimizing the required testing effort.

Determination of an effective and economical hardness test typically will require several kinds of decisions. A partial enumeration of the decisions that typically must be made is as follows:

Determination of the Need to Perform Device Characterization-For some cases it may be more appropriate to adopt some kind of worst case testing scheme that does not require device characterization. For other cases it may be most effective to determine the effect of dose-rate on the radiation sensitivity of a device. As necessary, the appropriate level of detail of such a characterization also must be determined.