Dopant-Type and Concentration Dependence of Total-Ionizing-Dose Response in Piezoresistive Micromachined Cantilevers

Lighter doping, pretreatment (exposure to hydrogen in a steam bath), and lower dose rate are each found to exacerbate 10-keV X-ray-induced negative frequency shifts and increase in resistivity measured in T-shaped, asymmetric, piezoresistive, micromachined, and resonating cantilevers. All devices recover to levels close to preirradiation after several hours of postirradiation annealing. The effects are attributed to dose-rate-dependent efficiencies of the depassivation of dopants by hydrogen and surface charging effects, which alter the effective Young’s modulus and shear elastic constants. Increases in resistivity are attributed to increases in scattering causing decreases in mobility. Results indicate the need to consider dopant type and concentration when choosing microelectromechanical systems for use in radiation environments in addition to accounting for low-dose-rate effects.