A Solution of Displacement Damage Evaluation on Silicon Chip Under Space Environment

A method of displacement damage simulation under space environment is presented. This simulation of silicon lattice displacement damage rate is used for low Earth orbit satellite application. In this application, altitude was set for 375km as a typical variable. Through the simulation, displacement damage rates of different geomagnetic latitude orbital positions were given, which is useful for evaluating reliability of semiconductor devices on spacecraft. And displacement damage rates of different geomagnetic latitude orbital positions were compared, which is useful for orbit design. Diverse particles caused displacement damage are concerned, such as Gamma, electron, positron, pi+, pi?, proton, deuterium, tritium, helium and aluminum. The main displacement damage source is proton, which is part of cosmic ray or secondary particle from the shell of spacecraft. Compared with None Ionizing Energy Lost (NIEL), this result is given by “density of displacement damage in silicon crystal”, which is a useful way to evaluate defects of semiconductor device or solar cells, in turn more helpful for engineers.