Radiation from Van Allen Radiation Belt around the Earth would influence the electronics in Satellites.

One special but important reliability issue is the device stability in radiation harsh environment, where high mobility FETs have to sustain energetic bombardment from irradiation. In space environment, electronic devices are constantly subjected to relatively low doses of radiation but for very long mission lifetime.  One major issue is the total ionizing dose (TID) effect, as traps capture radiation-induced carriers to cause such device degradation as threshold voltage (Vth) shifts (below).

 

The Vth shift of an InGaAs MOSFET under X-ray radiation: a “turn around” of the Vth trace indicates both hole trapping and electron trapping

 TID effects show complex behaviors on the device with advanced structures, such as GaN MOS-HEMT (below),

                                            

The Vth shifts after the radiation of a low dose (<3 krad ) are found in both an MOS-HEMT and an HEMT, which are therefore induced by trapping in the AlGaN layer shared by the two devices. In an MOS-HEMT structure, there is an additional slow Vth shift under radiation, corresponding to hole trapping in the inserted dielectric layers (e.g., Al2O3).