This paper investigates the temperature-dependent effects of gamma-ray irradiation on β-Ga₂O₃ vertical Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) under a 100 V reverse bias condition at a total dose of 1 Mrad(Si). As the irradiation dose increased, the radiation damage became more severe. The total ionizing dose (TID) degradation behavior and mechanisms were evaluated through DC, capacitance–voltage (C-V), and low-frequency noise (LFN) measurements by varying irradiation, and the test results indicated that TID effects introduced interface defects and altered the carrier concentration within the material. The impact of TID effects was more pronounced at lower temperatures compared to higher temperatures. Additionally, the annealing effect in the high-temperature experimental conditions ameliorated the growth of interface trap defects caused by irradiation. These results suggest that compared to low-temperature testing, the device exhibits higher TID tolerance after high-temperature exposure, providing valuable insights for in-depth radiation reliability studies on subsequent related devices.

In this article, the effects of high-energy proton irradiation on top-gate graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) were investigated by using 20 MeV protons. The basic electrical parameters of the top-gate GFETs were measured before and after proton irradiation with a fluence of 1 × 10¹¹ p/cm² and 5 × 10¹¹ p/cm², respectively. Decreased saturation current, increased Dirac sheet resistance, and negative drift in the Dirac voltage in response to proton irradiation were observed. According to the transfer characteristic curves, it was found that the carrier mobility was reduced after proton irradiation. The analysis suggests that proton irradiation generates a large net positive charge in the gate oxide layer, which induces a negative drift in the Dirac voltage. Introducing defects and increased impurities at the gate oxide/graphene interface after proton irradiation resulted in enhanced Coulomb scattering and reduced mobility of the carriers, which in turn affects the Dirac sheet resistance and saturation current. After annealing at room temperature, the electrical characteristics of the devices were partially restored. The results of the technical computer-aided design (TCAD) simulation indicate that the reduction in carrier mobility is the main reason for the degradation of the electrical performance of the device. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to determine the ionization and nonionization energy losses induced by proton incidence in top-gate GFET devices. The simulation data show that the ionization energy loss is the primary cause of the degradation of the electrical performance.

Proton and heavy ion irradiation experiments were carried out on Cascode GaN HEMT devices. Results show that device degradation from heavy ion irradiation is more significant than from proton irradiation. Under proton irradiation, obvious device degradation occurred. Low-frequency noise testing revealed a notable increase in internal defect density, reducing channel carrier concentration and mobility, and causing electrical performance degradation. Under heavy ion irradiation, devices suffered from single-event burnout (SEB) and exhibited increased leakage current. Failure analysis of post-irradiation devices showed that those with leakage current increase had conductive channels without morphological changes, while burned out devices showed obvious damage between the gate and drain regions. SRIM simulation indicated that ionization energy loss-induced electron–hole pairs and displacement damage from nuclear energy loss were the main causes of degradation. Sentaurus TCAD simulation of heavy ion irradiated GaN HEMT devices confirmed the mechanisms of leakage current increase and SEB.

This study systematically investigates the mechanism by which total ionizing dose (TID) affects the lifetime degradation of NMOS devices induced by hot-carrier injection (HCI). Experiments involved Cobalt-60 (Co-60) gamma-ray irradiation to a cumulative dose of 500 krad (Si), followed by 168 h annealing at 100 °C to simulate long-term stability. However, under HCI stress conditions (V_D = 2.7 V, V_G = 1.8 V), irradiated devices show a 6.93% increase in threshold voltage shift (ΔV_th) compared to non-irradiated counterparts. According to the IEC 62416 standard, the lifetime degradation of irradiated devices induced by HCI stress is only 65% of that of non-irradiated devices. Conversely, when the saturation drain current (I_Dsat) degrades by 10%, the lifetime doubles compared to non-irradiated counterparts. Mechanistic analysis demonstrates that partial neutralization of E’ center positive charges at the gate oxide interface by hot electrons weakens the electric field shielding effect, accelerating ΔV_th drift, while interface trap charges contribute minimally to degradation due to annealing-induced self-healing. The saturation drain current shift degradation primarily correlates with electron mobility variations. This work elucidates the multi-physics mechanisms through which TID impacts device reliability and provides critical insights for radiation-hardened design optimization.