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Research Papers

# Observations in Changes of Electrical Properties in Thermally Neutron-Exposed Boron-Doped Silicon Semiconductors

[+] Author and Article Information
Hector E. Medina

Engineering Department,
School of Engineering and Computational Sciences,
Liberty University,
Lynchburg, VA 24515
e-mail: hmedina@liberty.edu

Brian Hinderliter

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
University of Minnesota-Duluth,
1305 Ordean Court, Duluth, MN 55812
e-mail: bhinderl@d.umn.edu

1Corresponding author.

Manuscript received October 16, 2014; final manuscript received February 19, 2015; published online May 20, 2015. Assoc. Editor: Michal Kostal.

ASME J of Nuclear Rad Sci 1(3), 031009 (May 20, 2015) (5 pages) Paper No: NERS-14-1052; doi: 10.1115/1.4029961 History: Received October 16, 2014; Accepted March 02, 2015; Online May 20, 2015

## Abstract

Boron-doped resistors and transistors were developed using various levels of boron concentration. These were exposed to a thermal neutron flux of about $2×108 s−1 cm−2$ at various fluences, at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Characterization of some electrical properties was carried out before and after irradiation. The reaction, $10B+n→Li+α$, and others, caused by neutron irradiation, introduced impurities in the silicon lattice, thus producing measurable differences in electronic parameters. The results show that for irradiated resistors possessing very low values of boron concentration ($≈1014 cm−3$), there is a significant reduction (i.e., orders of magnitude) in resistivity, for the higher fluences studied ($2×1011–1012 cm−2$). This trend is not seen for high values of boron concentration ($≈1021 cm−3$), nor for the low-boron-concentration specimens exposed to a lower fluence. These observations appear to be in accordance with the deep-trap level behavior, and, though requiring further study, they seem to be promising for the potential application on neutron radiation detection. Additionally, there was no observation of significant changes in other electronic parameters, such as threshold voltage or trans-conductance, for the transistors exposed and tested.

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## Figures

Fig. 1

(a) Side view and (b) top view of heavily doped wafers used in the experiments

Fig. 2

Experimental setup performed at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center

Fig. 3

Plot of simulated and measured neutron flux for a wide range of energies

Fig. 4

Plot showing order of magnitude change for two sets of resistors. Vertical axis indicates order of magnitude of resistance in ohms. This plot corresponds to fluence 2×1012  cm−2. Similar values were observed for 1011  cm−2. This behavior was not observed for the low fluence studied (2×108  cm−2)

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