Time-Dependent Hot Carrier Degradation in Polysilicon Emitter Bipolar Transistors Under High Current and Radiation Combined Stress

A comparative combined stress-induced reliability issues between Auger hot carrier and ionizing radiation in double polysilicon bipolar transistor is investigated. The observed differences in the low-frequency noise spectra of devices with different stressing conditions could be interpreted as the differences in the defects-related noise contributions. Low-frequency noise and electrical performance degradation results show that Auger hot carriers greatly induce the atomic hydrogen depassivating the dangling bonds in grain boundaries of emitter polysilicon. However, ionizing radiation damage occurs both at SiO2/Si interfaces and in the oxide layer. 1/f noise characteristics indicate that these two damages have different time dependences.