An Evaluation of Low-Energy X-Ray and Cobalt-60 Irradiations of MOS Transistors

An evaluation of methodologies for irradiating MOS transistors with low-energy x-ray and Co-60 sources has been performed. We find that comparisons of voltage shifts produced by bulk trapped charge and interface states in MOS transistors irradiated using two different low energy x-ray sources (an ARACOR 10 keV W source and an 8 keV Cu source) agree to within better than 30 percent. This quality of agreement is similar in magnitude to that between MOS devices irradiated by different Co-60 sources. In contrast, the measurements indicate that interlaboratory comparisons of ratios of shifts produced by x-ray and Co-60 sources can lead to differences in ratios as large as a factor of ~1.7. Improved electron-hole recombination data for oxides is presented. This recombination correction, in conjunction with a correction for interface dose enhancement, is used to predict the ratios of shifts produced by x-ray and Co-60 sources. However, the results show that corrections for electron-hole recombination and interface dose enhancement do not, by themselves, adequately predict the field dependent behavior of these transistors.