A Probabilistic Analysis Technique Applied to a Radiation-Hardened-by-Design Voltage-Controlled Oscillator for Mixed-Signal Phase-Locked Loops

A voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) circuit has been designed for radiation-hardened-by-design (RHBD) single-event transient (SET) mitigation. The RHBD technique, which can be readily implemented in mixed-signal phase-locked loops and delay-locked loops, is shown to substantially improve the single-event performance of the VCO while decreasing the RMS phase jitter due to power supply noise. Additionally, using the probabilistic analysis technique presented, the RHBD VCO shows a maximally improved SET response over that of the conventional VCO, decreasing the output phase displacement to below the nominal phase jitter.