Current response stability of a commercial PIN photodiode for low dose radiation processing applications

Abstract

This work investigates the on-line response of a thin diode, for monitoring low dose radiation processing, with respect to the linearity between current and dose-rate, the most interesting part being the variation of the current sensitivity with the accumulated dose. The results obtained indicate that the current response of this diode is linear and quite stable with repeatability better than 0.2% and a slight decay of 5% of the current sensitivity (0.28 nA h/Gy) for doses up to 15 kGy. In an attempt to give theoretical support to these results, the radiation induced current is calculated as a function of the dose rate assuming the diode to be thin as compared with the standard values of the minority carrier diffusion lengths in intrinsic silicon. Agreement within 2% is found between calculations and experimental data.