• Proceedings of the Korea Environmental Mutagen Society Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.60-60
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• 2004

• Journal of Semiconductor Engineering
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.81-87
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• 2020

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.