Comparative study of the proton beam effects between the conventional and Circular-Gate MOSFETs

The study of ionizing radiation effects on semiconductor devices is of great relevance for the global technological development and is a necessity in some strategic areas in Brazil. This work presents preliminary results of radiation effects in MOSFETs that were exposed to 3.2Grad radiation dose produced by a 2.6-MeV proton beam. The focus of this work was to electrically characterize a Rectangular-Gate MOSFET (RGT) and a Circular-Gate MOSFET (CGT), manufactured with the On Semiconductor 0.5μm standard CMOS fabrication process and to verify a suitable geometry for space applications. During the experiment, IDS×VGS curves were measured. After irradiation, the RGT off-state current (IOFF) increased approximately two orders of magnitude reaching practically the same value of the IOFF in the CGT, which only doubled its value.