Diagnosis of Faults Induced by Radiation and Circuit-Level Design Mitigation Techniques: Experience from VCO and High-Speed Driver CMOS ICs Case Studies

Danilo Monda,Sergio Saponara,Gabriele Ciarpi

doi:10.3390/electronics10172144

Danilo Monda, Sergio Saponara + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10172144

Copy DOI

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the diagnosis of particle-induced failures in harsh environments such as space and high-energy physics. To address these effects, simulation-before-test and simulation-after-test can be the key points in choosing which radiation hardening by design (RHBD) techniques can be implemented to mitigate or prevent failures. Despite the fact that total ionising dose (TID) has slow but destructive effects overtime on silicon devices, single-event effect (SEE) impulsively disrupts the typical operation of a circuit with temporary or permanent effects. The recently released SpaceFibre protocol drives the current requirements for space applications, and the future upgrade of the LHC experiment scheduled by CERN will require a redesign of the electronic front-end to sustain a radiation level up to the 1 Grad TID level. The effects that these two environments have on two different architectures for high-radiation and high-frequency data transmission are reported, and the efficiency of the mitigation techniques implemented, based on simulations and measurement tests, in the commercial 65 nm technology, are exploited.

Highlights

The low-cost and readily available CMOS technology is the most integrated technology for high-speed radio frequency transceivers in optical communications, and it became very popular in the semiconductor industry
A fault diagnosis in analog circuits is very difficult to perform in the typical scenario mainly due to its complexity [2], and it seems that it is not possible to reach a fully automated fault diagnosis methodology developed for the digital circuits [3]
Harsh environments can worsen it because a small perturbation on the electrical signal can significantly affect the performance of a circuit, and a simulation-before-test should be the key to achieving better results

Summary

Introduction

The low-cost and readily available CMOS technology is the most integrated technology for high-speed radio frequency transceivers in optical communications, and it became very popular in the semiconductor industry. Via the use of GEANT4 with one of the previous tools, it is possible to simulate electron transport and nuclear reactions with high precision in order to completely characterise the mitigation technique implemented during the simulation-before-test phase [9]. Another tool, called MUSCA SEP3, and developed by ONERA, is based on physical mechanisms and sequential modelling. The main environments in which radiations are present are space and high-energy physics, and each of them requires a different level of tolerance for both soft and hard faults induced by particles.

Single-Event Effects

Voltage-Controlled Oscillator

Findings