Radiation-induced gettering in silicon p-n junctions

For small-area silicon diffusion p-n junctions that are used when producing IMPATT diodes it is shown that one can make their I - V curves close to the ideal one. To this end the packaged IMPATT diodes were exposed to 60Co gamma-radiation in the 103 to 5*105 Gy dose range. When the irradiation dose was from 103 to 104 Gy, then the diode I - V curves remained practically the same. The exposition up to a dose of 2*105 Gy resulted in improvement of the diode electrical characteristics. By this the ideality factor for the forward branch of the I - V curve becomes 1.17 and the reverse current substantially decreases. An analysis made for the diode exposed to a dose of 2*105 Gy has shown that the forward branch of its I - V curve may be described by the expression similar to that for the ideal diode