Journal of Semiconductor Engineering

The Institute of Semiconductor Engineers (반도체공학회)
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Recent Advances in Radiation-Hardened Sensor Readout Integrated Circuits

  • Um, Minseong (School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University) ;
  • Ro, Duckhoon (School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University) ;
  • Kang, Myounggon (Department of Electronics Engineering, Korea National University of Transportation) ;
  • Chang, Ik Joon (Department of Electronic Engineering, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Lee, Hyung-Min (School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University)
  • Received : 2020.11.30
  • Accepted : 2020.12.21
  • Published : 2020.12.30
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Abstract

An instrumentation amplifier (IA) and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) are essential circuit blocks for accurate and robust sensor readout systems. This paper introduces recent advances in radiation-hardening by design (RHBD) techniques applied for the sensor readout integrated circuits (IC), e.g., the three-op-amp IA and the successive-approximation register (SAR) ADC, operating against total ionizing dose (TID) and singe event effect (SEE) in harsh radiation environments. The radiation-hardened IA utilized TID monitoring and adaptive reference control to compensate for transistor parameter variations due to radiation effects. The radiation-hardened SAR ADC adopts delay-based double-feedback flip-flops to prevent soft errors which flips the data bits. Radiation-hardened IA and ADC were verified through compact model simulation, and fabricated CMOS chips were measured in radiation facilities to confirm their radiation tolerance.

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References

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