Readout integrated circuits (ROICs) to support space-based infrared detection applications often have severe radiation tolerance requirements. Radiation hardness-by-design (RHBD) significantly enhances the radiation tolerance of commercially available CMOS and custom radiation hardened fabrication techniques are not required. The combination of application specific design techniques, enclosed gate architecture nFETs and intrinsic thin oxide radiation hardness of 180 nm process node commercial CMOS allows realization of high performance mixed signal circuits. Black Forest Engineering has used RHBD techniques to develop ROICs with integrated A/D conversion that operate over a wide range of temperatures (40K-300K) to support infrared detection. ROIC radiation tolerance capability for 256x256 LWIR area arrays and 1x128 thermopile linear arrays is presented. The use of 130 nm CMOS for future ROIC RHBD applications is discussed.

Date Published: 19 September 2013
PDF: 14 pages
Proc. SPIE 8868, Infrared Sensors, Devices, and Applications III, 88680I (19 September 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2024671

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8868:
Infrared Sensors, Devices, and Applications III
Paul D. LeVan; Ashok K. Sood; Priyalal S. Wijewarnasuriya; Arvind I. D'Souza, Editor(s)