RADHARD 2018

Radiation Hardness Assurance

Ionizing Radiation and Radiation Hardness in Analog Integrated Circuits: Recent X-Ray testing

Varvara Bezhenova, Alicja Michalowska-Forsyth
Graz University of Technology, Institute of Electronics, Inffeldgasse 12/I, Graz 8010, Austria

Abstract

Development of radiation hardened integrated circuits (ICs) is a long iterative process. Radiation hardness assurance of such ICs involves multiple comparisons between various device and circuit topologies. In this talk we present the challenges of this process on an example of two test ICs designed at the Institute of Electronics at Graz University of Technology and fabricated in a commercial 180 nm CMOS process.

These ICs were tested against the effects of total ionizing dose at three different X-ray facilities, available in Austria.  The comparison of the test results from different facilities is additional challenging task in the radiation hardness assurance procedure. This includes comparison of the dose rate estimation with different dosimetry tools available at these facilities as well as comparison of TID effects on ICs, irradiated at different X-ray sources.

References

[1] G. Pulodwinski et al. “SpekCalc: a program to calculate photon spectra from tungsten anode x-ray tubes”, Physics in Medicine & Biology, vol. 54, No. 19, pp 433-438.

[2] P. Kuess et al. „Dosimetric challenges of small animal irradiation with a commercial X-ray unit”, Zeitschrift fuer Medizinische Physik, Vol 24, No. 4, 2014, pp 363-372.

[3] Bezhenova, A. Michalowska-Forsyth „Effects of ionizing radiation on integrated circuits“, e&i, Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, vol. 133, No. 1, February 2016, pp 39-42.

[4] V. Bezhenova, A. Michalowska-Forsyth „Total ionizing dose effects on MOS transistors fabricated in 0.18um CMOS technology“, 2016 Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, (APEMC), Shenzhen 2016, pp. 366-369.

[5] V. Bezhenova, A. Michalowska-Forsyth. “TID characterization at low and medium energy X-rays of 0.18 µm analog integrated testchip MiAMoRE”, 13th International School on the Effects of Radiation on Embedded Systems for Space Applications, SERESSA 2017.

[6] V. Bezhenova and A. Michalowska-Forsyth. “Aspect ratio of radiation-hardened MOS transistor”, e&i Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik Feb. 2018 vol 135, pp 61-68.

[7] M. Auer and V. Bezhenova. “A radiation hard curvature-compensated bandgap voltage reference”, e&i Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik Feb. 2018, vol 135, pp  3-9.

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank the team of MedAustron non-clinical research department for granting the access to research facilities and equipment.