Title :
A TID and SEE Radiation-Hardened, Wideband, Low-Noise Amplifier
Author :
Mossawir, Benjamin ; Linscott, Ivan R. ; Inan, Umran S. ; Roeder, James L. ; Osborn, Jon V. ; Witczak, Steven C. ; King, Everett E. ; LaLumondiere, Stephen D.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Stanford Univ., CA
Abstract :
We have developed a radiation-hardened, highly linear, wideband, low-noise amplifier (LNA) with programmable gain to serve as the front-end of a plasma-wave instrument for satellite-based electric-field measurements of very low frequency (VLF) phenomena in the Van Allen radiation belts. Fabricated in a commercial 0.25-mum silicon-germanium BiCMOS process, this ASIC leverages radiation-hardness-by-design techniques at the topological, implementation, and layout levels to maintain 75-dB spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) over nearly four decades of frequency, from 100 Hz to 1 MHz, for both proton and gamma-ray total ionizing dose (TID) exposures up to 1000 krad(Si). Single-event effect (SEE) testing via pulsed laser confirms negligible latchup sensitivity and suppression of single-event transients (SETs) at the output for beam energy LET equivalents in excess of 100MeV-cm2 /mg in even the most sensitive regions of the die
Keywords :
BiCMOS integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; application specific integrated circuits; gamma-ray effects; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit testing; low noise amplifiers; proton effects; radiation belts; radiation hardening (electronics); wideband amplifiers; 0.25 micron; 100 Hz to 1 MHz; ASIC; LET; SEE radiation-hardened highly linear wideband low-noise amplifier; SET; SiGe; VLF receivers; Van Allen radiation belts; beam energy; commercial silicon-germanium BiCMOS process; feedback; gamma-ray total ionizing dose exposures; harmonic distortion; large-signal linearity; latchup sensitivity; plasma-wave instrument; programmable gain; proton total ionizing dose exposures; pulsed laser; radiation-hardness-by-design techniques; satellite-based electric-field measurements; single-event effect testing; single-event transients; spurious-free dynamic range; very low frequency phenomena; Belts; Electric variables measurement; Frequency measurement; Gain measurement; Germanium silicon alloys; Instruments; Low-noise amplifiers; Plasma applications; Plasma measurements; Silicon germanium; BiCMOS; VLF receivers; feedback; harmonic distortion; large-signal linearity; plasma waves; radiation hardening; spurious-free dynamic range; wideband amplifiers;
Journal_Title :
Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TNS.2006.886219
