Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) devices are sensitive to the total ionizing dose effect due to the existence of buried oxide. In this paper, an extra single-step Si ion implantation into buried oxide layer prior to the normal complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor transistor (CMOS) process is used to harden the SOI wafer. The top-Si quality of the hardened SOI wafer is confirmed to be good enough for device manufacturing through various characterization methods. The radiation experiments show that the total ionizing dose tolerance of the Si implanted SOI device is improved significantly. The metastable electron traps introduced by Si implantation is also investigated by electrical stress. The results show that these traps are very instable, and electrons will tunnel into or out of the metastable electron traps quickly after hot-electron-injection or hot-hole-injection.