Bipolar transistor and diode failure to electrical transients-predictive failure modeling versus experimental damage testing. 1: Junction capacitance damage model

For all the difficulties engendered in its use, semiconductor device damage data are an integral part of many programs of electromagnetic pulse vulnerability assessment and hardening. Experimental damage data, which are generated only as a result of dedicated efforts, can be expected to be available for only a minor fraction of all semiconductor devices. This limited supply has spurred efforts to develop predictive damage models, in order to bypass the tedious experimental requirements for generating damage data. The predictive ability of the best of these models, the junction capacitance damage model, is investigated in detail. Central to this study is a library of experimental damage data for 46 silicon device types, comprising bipolar transistors and diodes tested at the 10-, 1-, and 0.1-micro-sec. pulse durations. These are devices from the front ends of a number of Army systems and represent radio, field wire, and cable functions with operating ranges in the direct current (dc) to microwave region. Of the 46 experimental devices comprising 68 junction types (collector-to-base and emitter-to-base junctions treated as distinct for all transistors), sufficient published manufacturers' data were available for the damage modeling of 11 junctions. These were supplemented with measured parameters for 27 junction types.