Abstract
For stable and effective control of the sensor system, analog sensor signals such as temperature, pressure, and electromagnetic fields should be accurately measured and converted to digital bits. However, radiation environments, such as space, flight, nuclear power plants, and nuclear fusion reactors, as well as high-reliability applications, such as automotive semiconductor systems, suffer from radiation effects that degrade the performance of the sensor readout system including analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and cause system malfunctions. This paper investigates an optimal ADC structure in radiation environments and proposes a successive- approximation-register (SAR) ADC using delay-based double feedback flip-flops to enhance the system tolerance against radiation effects, including total ionizing dose (TID) and single event effects (SEE). The proposed flip-flop was fabricated using 130 nm complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process, and its radiation tolerance was measured in actual radiation test facilities. Also, the proposed radiation-hardened SAR ADC with delay-based dual feedback flip-flops was designed and verified by utilizing compact transistor models, which reflect radiation effects to CMOS parameters, and radiation simulator computer aided design (CAD) tools.
Highlights
In order to control the sensor system stably and effectively, it is necessary to accurately diagnose and control the sensor environments by measuring signals such as temperature, pressure, and electromagnetic field
The test chip included 10,000 proposed radiation-hardened flip-flops and 10,000 conventional latches flip-flop is designed as shown in Figure 10 based on the delay-based dual feedback latch (Figure 6)
Integrated circuit systems used in flight, space, nuclear power plants, nuclear fusion reactors, and automotive semiconductors sufferinfrom performance degradation and system malfunction due to Integrated circuit systems used flight, space, nuclear power plants, nuclear fusion reactors, radiation effects
Summary
In order to control the sensor system stably and effectively, it is necessary to accurately diagnose and control the sensor environments by measuring signals such as temperature, pressure, and electromagnetic field. Various sensor signals are measured and converted from analog signals to digital bits in the sensor front-end readout system. If the ADC circuit cannot convert the measured signals into accurate digital signals due to external influences, it will seriously degrade the stability, accuracy, and efficiency of the system, even resulting in system malfunctions.
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