Monte Carlo simulation of electron and proton irradiation of carbon nanotube and graphene transistors

Carbon-based nanotechnology electronics can provide high performance, low-power and low-weight solutions, which are very suitable for innovative aerospace applications. However, its application in the space environment where there is a radiation hazard, requires an assessment of the response of such electronic products to the background irradiance. To explore the potential of carbon-based nanotechnology, Monte Carlo simulations of radiation interacting with a gate-all-around carbon nanotube (GAACNFET) and a top-gated graphene FET are presented. Geant4 is used to calculate the energy deposited into the dielectric layers and the displacement damage in the nanosemiconductors under proton and electron irradiation. Both an unshielded and two cases with 250 µm thick NiFe and Pb shielding are tested at a fluence of 1015 m-2. The energy range of the particles considered is 10-2 – 102 MeV for the unshielded and 1 – 103 MeV for the shielded case. The results indicate that the graphene transistor is more susceptible to displacement damage than the CNT-based system