A design solution to increasing the sensitivity of pMOS dosimeters: the stacked RADFET approach

pMOS radiation sensitive field effect transistors (RADFET´s) have applications as integrating dosimeters in spacecraft, laboratories and medicine to measure the amount of radiation dose absorbed. The suitability of these dosimeters to a certain application depends on the sensitivity of the RADFET being used. To date, this sensitivity is limited to the sensitivity of the gate oxide to radiation. The aim of this paper is to introduce a new design approach which will allow greater sensitivities to be achieved than is currently possible. An additional attractive feature of this design approach is that the sensitivity of the dosimeter may be changed depending on the total dose which is to be measured; essentially a dosimeter with auto-scaling may be achieved. This study introduces this auto-scaling concept along with presenting the optimum RADFET device requirements which are necessary for this new design approach