Dose rate effects in bipolar oxides: Competition between trap filling and recombination

Predicting the low-dose-rate degradation of bipolar technologies is one of the main issues for circuits intended for use in the ionizing-radiation environment of space because of the enhanced low-dose-rate sensitivity (ELDRS). In this letter, ELDRS is shown to be related to competition between trapping and recombination of radiation-induced carriers in the oxide. The presented model is shown to be in good agreement with experimental data. It is also shown that this effect is strongly dependent on the oxide quality.