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Analysis of radiation damage in modern NPN bipolar transistors at various dose rates is performed with a recently introduced charge separation method and PISCES simulations. The charge separation method is verified with measurements on metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors. Gain degradation is more pronounced at lower dose rates. The charge separation technique reveals that depletion-region spreading and effective recombination velocity are both greater for devices irradiated at lower dose rates.© 1994 American Institute of Physics.

Exposure to ionizing radiation degrades the current gain of bipolar junction transistors BJTs by increasing the base current while leaving the collector current approximately constant. 1–5 Prediction of this gain degradation in low-doserate space radiation environments from irradiations done at laboratory dose rates requires the understanding of timedependent effects. Once …