Abstract: In this article the effects of radiations on discrete and complex electronic devices were analyzed. In the preliminary phase of this work the space environment was studied, referring to radiations and their effects on the matter and on electronic devices. The main radiation-hardening techniques were investigated, in particular the "by-layout" techniques. One of these rad-hard devices is the edgeless transistor (ELT). A static electrical characterization, before the irradiation (fresh condition), was conducted on these devices in order to evaluate their features with respect to the standard ones (STD). The measures have highlighted the differences between the ELT types, confirming the main features of ELTs, as shown in literature as well. Another investigation regarded the irradiation test of some 8Mbit TOPAZ flash memories using Boron ions. These test were conducted both in the active state (during the reading of memory cells) and in the passive state (in standby). Thanks to these test, it was possible to study the memory cell bit flips at the changing of the radiation dose, classifying the different bit flip stories dose by dose. Finally, the result was that: the flips of programmed bits were more frequent than ones of non-programmed bits; the memories irradiated in active state had less failures than the ones irradiated in passive state. Some statistical data elaborations were conducted in order to understand the trend of the bit-flip of the cells with the dose. Using these data a predictive model was defined to estimate the mean variation of the memory cell threshold voltage shift with the dose.
Keywords: Radiations, Total dose, ELT transistors, pre/post irradiation measurements.
Title: Experimental Analysis and Investigation on the Effects of Radiations on Integrated Circuits for Space Applications
Author: Gianluca Borgese, Calogero Pace
International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Innovations
ISSN 2348-1218 (print), ISSN 2348-1226 (online)
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