Title :
A capacitively coupled dose-rate-dependent transient upset mechanism in a bipolar memory
Author :
Turfler, Robert M. ; Pease, Ronald L. ; Dinger, Greg ; Armstrong, Bruce
Author_Institution :
Mission Res. Corp., Albuquerque, NM, USA
fDate :
2/1/1992 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
A pattern sensitivity was observed in the threshold dose rate upset response of a bipolar 16 K PROM for radiation pulse widths of 20-100 ns. For the worst case pattern, the upset threshold was a factor of three lower than for the commonly used checkerboard pattern. The mechanism or this pattern sensitivity was found to be a capacitively coupled voltage transient on a sensitive node which caused a low-to-high transition at the output. A design fix was implemented to significantly alter the ratio of the two parasitic capacitances in a capacitive divider which reduced the amplitude of the voltage transient at the sensitive node. It was demonstrated that in the redesign, the pattern sensitivity was eliminated
Keywords :
PROM; X-ray effects; bipolar integrated circuits; integrated circuit testing; integrated memory circuits; transients; 16 kbit; X-ray irradiation; bipolar PROM; capacitive divider; capacitively coupled voltage transient; parasitic capacitances; pattern sensitivity; radiation pulse widths; threshold dose rate upset response; transient upset mechanism; Circuit analysis; Ionization; PROM; Parasitic capacitance; Photoconductivity; Random access memory; Semiconductor device noise; Space vector pulse width modulation; Substrates; Voltage;
Journal_Title :
Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on
