Low dose failures of hardened DC-DC power converters

Author

Lehman, J. ; Yui, C. ; Rax, B.G. ; Miyahira, T.F. ; Wiedeman, M. ; Schrock, P. ; Swift, G.M. ; Johnston, A.H. ; Kayali, S.

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

2002

Firstpage

109

Lastpage

114

Abstract

Radiation tests of Interpoint DC-DC converters, guaranteed by the manufacturer to 100 krad(Si), showed catastrophic failures at total dose levels as low as 4 krad(Si). Special diagnostic tests showed that failures were caused by an internal CMOS MOSFET driver chip being used in an application that differed from earlier radiation tests of the component. This paper discusses radiation testing, failure modes, and the method used to overcome this problem weeks prior to launch of two space systems.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; DC-DC power convertors; circuit reliability; circuit testing; driver circuits; failure analysis; power MOSFET; radiation effects; radiation hardening (electronics); space vehicle electronics; 100 krad; 4 krad; CMOS MOSFET driver chips; catastrophic converter failures; diagnostic failure tests; failure modes; hardened DC-DC power converter low dose failures; radiation tests; space systems; spacecraft electronics applications; total dose levels; DC-DC power converters; Degradation; MOSFET circuits; Manufacturing; Power MOSFET; Propulsion; Protons; Radiation hardening; Testing; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Radiation Effects Data Workshop, 2002 IEEE

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7544-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/REDW.2002.1045539

Filename

1045539