• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.1619-1626
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• 2017

Electronic components that are used in high-level radiation environment require a semiconductor device having a radiation-hardened characteristic. In this paper, we proposed a radiation-hardened I-gate n-MOSFET (n-type Metal Oxide Semiconductors Field Effect Transistors) using a layout modification technique only. The proposed I-gate n-MOSFET structure is modified as an I-shaped gate poly in order to mitigate a radiation-induced leakage current in the standard n-MOSFET structure. For verification of its radiation-hardened characteristic, the M&S (Modeling and Simulation) of the 3D (3-Dimension) structure is performed by TCAD (Technology Computer Aided Design) tool. In addition, we carried out an evaluation test using a $Co^{60}$ gamma-ray source of 10kGy(Si)/h. As a result, we have confirmed the radiation-hardened level up to a total ionizing dose of 20kGy(Si).

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1927-1934
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• 2016

In this paper, we proposed a I-gate n-MOSFET (n-type Metal Oxide Semiconductors Field Effect Transistor) structure in order to mitigate a radiation-induced leakage current path in an isolation oxide interface of a silicon-based standard n-MOSFET. The proposed I-gate n-MOSFET structure was designed by using a layout modification technology in the standard 0.18um CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) process, this structure supplements the structural drawbacks of conventional radiation-tolerant electronic device using layout modification technology such as an ELT (Enclosed Layout Transistor) and a DGA (Dummy Gate-Assisted) n-MOSFET. Thus, in comparison with the conventional structures, it can ensure expandability of a circuit design in a semiconductor-chip fabrication. Also for verification of a radiation-tolerant characteristic, we carried out M&S (Modeling and Simulation) using TCAD 3D (Technology Computer Aided Design 3-dimension) tool. As a results, we had confirmed the radiation-tolerant characteristic of the I-gate n-MOSFET structure.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.1483-1490
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• 2021

Many studies are undertaken into nuclear power plants (NPPs) in preparation for accidents exceeding design standards. In this paper, we analyze the applicability of various wireless communication technologies as accident countermeasures in different NPP environments. In particular, a commercial wireless communication module (WCM) is investigated by measuring leakage current and packet error rate (PER), which vary depending on the intensity of incident radiation on the module, by testing at a Co-60 gamma-ray irradiation facility. The experimental results show that the WCMs continued to operate after total doses of 940 and 1097 Gy, with PERs of 3.6% and 0.8%, when exposed to irradiation dose rates of 185 and 486 Gy/h, respectively. In short, the lower irradiation dose rate decreased the performance of WCMs more than the higher dose rate. In experiments comparing the two communication protocols of request/response and one-way, the WCMs survived up to 997 and 1177 Gy, with PERs of 2% and 0%, respectively. Since the request/response protocol uses both the transmitter and the receiver, while the one-way protocol uses only the transmitter, then the electronic system on the side of the receiver is more vulnerable to radiation effects. From our experiments, the tested module is expected to be used for design-based accidents (DBAs) of "Category A" type, and has confirmed the possibility of using wireless communication systems in NPPs.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.85-90
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• 2013

In this paper, 6bit SAR ADC tolerant to ionizing radiation is presented. Radiation tolerance is achieved by using the Dummy Gate Assisted (DGA) MOSFET which was proposed to suppress the leakage current induced by ionizing radiation and its comparing sample is designed with the conventional MOSFET. The designed ADC consists of binary capacitor DAC, dynamic latch comparator, and digital logic and was fabricated using a standard 0.35um CMOS process. Irradiation was performed by Co-60 gamma ray. After the irradiation, ADC designed with the conventional MOSFET did not operate properly. On the contrary, ADC designed with the DGA MOSFET showed a little parametric degradation of which DNL was increased from 0.7LSB to 2.0LSB and INL was increased from 1.8LSB to 3.2LSB. In spite of its parametric degradation, analog to digital conversion in the ADC with DGA MOSFET was found to be possible.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.306-309
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• 2007

PXLM(Phosphor based x-ray light modulator) has a combined structure by phosphor, photoconductor, and liquid crystal and it can realize x-ray image of high resolution in clinical diagnosis area. In this study, we fabricated a photoconductor and investigated electrical and optical properties to confirm application possibility of radiator detector of PXLM structure. As photoconductor, amorphous selenium(a-Se), which is used most in DR(Digital radiography) of direct conversion method, was used and for formation of thin film, it was formed as $20{\mu}m-thick$ by using thermal vacuum evaporation system. For a produced a-Se film, through XRD(X-ray diffraction) and SEM(Scanning electron microscope), we investigated that amorphous structure was uniformly established and through optical measurement, for visible light of 40 $0\sim630nm$, it had absorption efficiency of 95 % and more. After fabricated a-Se film on the top of ITP substrate, hybrid structure was manufactured through forming $Gd_2O_3:Eu$ phosphor of $270{\mu}m-thick$ on the bottom of the substrate. As the result to confirm electrical property of the manufactured hybrid structure, in the case of appling $10V/{\mu}m$, leakage current of $2.5nA/cm^2$ and x-ray sensitivity of $7.31nC/cm^2/mR$ were investigated. Finally, we manufactured PXLM structure combined with hybrid structure and liquid crystal cell of TN(Twisted nematic) mode and then, investigated T-V(Transmission vs. voltage) curve of external light source for induced x-ray energy. PXLM structure showed a similar optical response with T-V curve that common TN mode liquid crystal cell showed according to electric field increase and in appling $50\sim100V$, it showed linear transmission efficiency of $12\sim18%$. This result suggested an application possibility of PXLM structure as radiation detector.