DAMAGE OF SEMICONDUCTOR DETECTORS BY 157 nm EXCIMER IRRADIATION STUDIED BY NIST SCIENTISTS.Researchers at NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology, Washington, DC, www.nist.gov) The standards-defining agency of the U.S. government, formerly the National Bureau of Standards. It is one of three agencies that fall under the Technology Administration (www.technology. have evaluated the stability of semiconductor diodes under irradiation irradiation /ir·ra·di·a·tion/ (i-ra?de-a´shun)1. radiotherapy. 2. the dispersion of nervous impulse beyond the normal path of conduction. 3. from an excimer laser A gas laser in which a very short electrical pulse excites a mixture containing a halogen such as fluorine and a rare gas such as argon or krypton. It produces a brief, intense pulse of ultraviolet light. operating at 157 nm. This study provides important information about the mechanism responsible for the degradation of photodiodes and also for the suitability for use of various kinds of detectors for different applications such as semiconductor lithography lithography (lĭthŏg`rəfē), type of planographic or surface printing. It is distinguished from letterpress (relief) printing and from intaglio printing (in which the design is cut or etched into the plate). , medical purposes, and micromachining. To perform this study, the scientists built a facility at SURF III that allows simultaneous exposure of photodiodes to excimer radiation and synchrotron synchrotron: see particle accelerator. synchrotron Cyclic particle accelerator in which the particle is confined to its orbit by a magnetic field. The strength of the magnetic field increases as the particle's momentum increases. radiation. The photodiodes are expose to intense, pulsed laser radiation for varying times, while the low intensity radiation from the synchrotron source is used to characterize the photodiodes. Changes in the spectral responsivity of different kinds of diodes, such as UV silicon, GaP, GaAsP, PtSi, diamond, and GaN, were measured for a large range of the total accumulated dose from an [F.sub.2] excimer laser operating at 157 nm. These measurements can be made in the spectral range from 120 nm to 320 nm with a standard uncertainty of 0.5 %. |
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