Low-Power, Subthreshold Reference Circuits for the Space Environment: Evaluated with -rays, X-rays, Protons and Heavy IonsShow others and affiliations
2019 (English)In: Electronics, E-ISSN 2079-9292, Vol. 8, no 5, article id 562Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The radiation tolerance of subthreshold reference circuits for space microelectronics is presented. The assessment is supported by measured results of total ionization dose and single event transient radiation-induced effects under -rays, X-rays, protons and heavy ions (silicon, krypton and xenon). A high total irradiation dose with different radiation sources was used to evaluate the proposed topologies for a wide range of applications operating in harsh environments similar to the space environment. The proposed custom designed integrated circuits (IC) circuits utilize only CMOS transistors, operating in the subthreshold regime, and poly-silicon resistors without using any external components such as compensation capacitors. The circuits are radiation hardened by design (RHBD) and they were fabricated using TowerJazz Semiconductor's 0.18 m standard CMOS technology. The proposed voltage references are shown to be suitable for high-precision and low-power space applications. It is demonstrated that radiation hardened microelectronics operating in subthreshold regime are promising candidates for significantly reducing the size and cost of space missions due to reduced energy requirements.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI, 2019. Vol. 8, no 5, article id 562
Keywords [en]
analog single-event transient (ASET), bandgap voltage reference (BGR), CMOS analog integrated circuits, gamma-rays, heavy-ions, ionization, protons, radiation hardening by design (RHBD), reference circuits, single-event effects (SEE), space electronics, total ionization dose (TID), voltage reference, X-rays
National Category
Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-389867DOI: 10.3390/electronics8050562ISI: 000470999900093OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-389867DiVA, id: diva2:1339881
Funder
The European Space Agency (ESA), 4000111630/14/NL/PAEU, FP7, Seventh Framework Programme, 262890 FP7-SPACE-2010-12019-07-312019-07-312020-12-15Bibliographically approved