The 27th International Conference on Accelerators and Beam Utilizations

Effect of Gamma(γ)-ray Radiation on Tin Oxide Field-Effect Transistors

Nov 13, 2025, 11:00 AM

20m

6F Lily&Rose Hall (LAHAN Hotel)

Oral Working group 4: Applications of particle beams

Speaker

Seonchang Kim (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute)

Description

In next-generation space applications, semiconductors are inevitably exposed to radiation environments, where performance degradation and reliability issues represent critical challenges for electronic devices [1,2]. Tin oxide (SnO2) exhibits a high mobility of 20–30 cm2/V·s even under low-temperature below 400 ℃, and its wide bandgap of over 3.8 eV provides strong extreme environment tolerance, making it a highly promising candidate for space electronics [3,4]. However, there have been hardly systematic researches on the degradation mechanisms and reliability of SnO2-based devices under space radiation exposure. In this work, SnO2 thin films and field-effect transistors were irradiated with γ-ray dose of 1, 3, and 5 kGy by using 60Co radioisotope, and their material and device properties were systematically estimated before and after irradiation. Based on these results, we confirmed the radiation-induced degradation mechanisms of SnO2 devices and the potential for application in radiation-hardened electronics for space environments.

Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea(No. RS-2024-00437064) by MSIT (Ministry of Science and ICT) and Industrial Strategic Technology Development Program-Alchemist Project (RS-2024-00432559, Development of Space-Grade Monolithic AlGaN/Diamond Ultimate Semiconductor) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE, Republic of Korea).

References
[1] Park, Minah, et al. "Rapid Thermal Annealing under O2 Ambient to Recover the Deterioration by Gamma-Ray Irradiation in a-IGZO TFTs." Electronic Materials Letters 21.1 (2025): 111-118.
[2] Azarov, Alexander, et al. "Universal radiation tolerant semiconductor." Nature Communications 14.1 (2023): 4855.
[3] Lee, Gyeong Ryul, et al. "Conductive SnO2-x thin films deposited by thermal ALD with H2O reactant." Vacuum 200 (2022): 111018.
[4] Kajal, Rashmi, et al. "Effects of gamma radiation on structural, optical, and electrical properties of SnO2 thin films." Applied Surface Science Advances 15 (2023): 100406.