Radiation-hardened-by-design preamplifier with binary weighted current source for radiation detector

Abstract

This paper presents a radiation-hardened-by-design preamplifier that utilizes a self-compensation technique with a charge-sensitive amplifier (CSA) and replica for total ionizing dose (TID) effects. The CSA consists of an operational amplifier (OPAMP) with a 6-bit binary weighted current source (BWCS) and feedback network. The replica circuit is utilized to compensate for the TID effects of the CSA. Two comparators can detect the operating point of the replica OPAMP and generate appropriate signals to control the switches of the BWCS. The proposed preamplifier was fabricated using a general-purpose complementary metal-oxide-silicon field effect transistor 0.18 μm process and verified through a test up to 230 kGy (SiO2) at a rate of 10.46 kGy (SiO2)/h. The code of the BWCS control circuit varied with the total radiation dose. During the verification test, the initial value of the digital code was 39, and a final value of 30 was observed. Furthermore, the preamplifier output exhibited a maximum variation error of 2.39%, while the maximum rise-time error was 1.96%. A minimum signal-to-noise ratio of 49.64 dB was measured.