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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-[micro]m 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 100 MeV-[cm.sup.2]/mg in even the most sensitive regions of the die. Index Terms--BiCMOS, feedback, harmonic distortion, large-signal linearity, plasma waves, radiation hardening, spurious-free dynamic range, VLF receivers, wideband amplifiers.

Results are presented on technique using displacement damage from energetic ions to suppress single event latchup in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) CMOS integrated circuits. Ions implanted through the back of a thinned chip degrade the parasitic bipolar transistors causing latchup without degrading chip functionality or the parametrics of the chip. Index Terms--COTS CMOS integrated circuits, displacement damage to suppress latchup, single event latchup suppression.

The response of a quartz crystal oscillator, onboard a satellite, to solar flares is examined and reported.

Generally good agreement is obtained between the single-event output voltage transient waveforms obtained by exposing individual circuit elements of a bipolar comparator and operational amplifier to an ion microbeam, a pulsed laser beam, and circuit simulations using SPICE. The agreement is achieved by adjusting the amounts of charge deposited by the laser or injected in the SPICE simulations. The implications for radiation hardness assurance are discussed. Index Terms--Bipolar analog, comparators, laser beams, integrated circuit, ion beams, ion microbeams, ionization, operational amplifiers, radiation effects, single event transient, transient response.

We have measured the single-event transient (SET) response for a number of 139-type comparators with differing topologies. In this paper, we present the results from pulsed laser measurements on a number of different 139-type devices, as well as heavy ion measurements on a new RM139 device from NSC. Devices tested with the laser included the HS-139RH, PM139, LM139 and a more recent version of LM139 from NSC. We discuss the effects of different device topologies on SET sensitivity. Our results agree qualitatively with SPICE model calculations of LM139s by Johnston et al. Index Terms--Analog, comparator, laser, linear, picosecond, single event transient (SET).

We report the thresholds for laser-induced latchup on epicaxial CMOS test structures for 600 nm and 815 nm excitation. We analyze the differences observed in terms of different iatchup triggering mechanisms and compare the results with measurements of energetic particle-induced latchup. Index Terms--Latchup, single event effects, picosecond, laser, epicaxial, cmos.

We perform measurements which show that focused, picosecond pulses of x-rays can be used to generate single event transients (SET) in a GaAs heterostructure field effect transistor (HFET) and a GaN high electron mobility transistor. X-ray pulses with photon energies of 8, 10 and 12 keV from the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory were used to excite transients. SETs are observed when x-ray pulses are incident upon metal layers above sensitive areas on the transistors. We use focused ion beam (FIB) cross-sectioning and scanning transmission electron microscopy energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDXS) to determine the compositional structure of the devices. We present a first order analysis of energy deposition in the devices and correlate it to the transient response to make preliminary interpretations of the results. We compare the x-ray transients from the GaAs HFET with transients generated by 750 nm and 870 nm femtosecond laser pulses. We also present results on the total dose susceptibility of the GaN HEMTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]