Pulse Shape Measurements by On-Chip Sense Amplifiers of Single Event Transients Propagating Through a 90 nm Bulk CMOS Inverter Chain

Abstract

Single event transient (SET) pulse shapes caused by Au ions with an energy of 946 MeV were measured at the microprobe facility at GSI in Darmstadt. Using on-chip sense amplifiers, our novel approach allows observing SET pulse shapes at any interesting circuit node with negligible distortion. We were hence able to accurately trace the propagation of SET pulses through a 90 nm CMOS inverter chain.