This book focuses on the design of a Mega-Gray (a standard unit of total ionizing radiation) radiation-tolerant ps-resolution time-to-digital converter (TDC) for a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system used in a gamma-radiation environment. Several radiation-hardened-by-design (RHBD) techniques are demonstrated throughout the design of the TDC and other circuit techniques to improve the TDC's resolution in a harsh environment are also investigated. Readers can learn from scratch how to design a radiation-tolerant IC. Information regarding radiation effects, radiation-hardened design techniques and measurements are organized in such a way that readers can easily gain a thorough understanding of the topic. Readers will also learn the design theory behind the newly proposed delta-sigma TDC. Readers can quickly acquire knowledge about the design of radiation-hardened bandgap voltage references and low-jitter relaxation oscillators, which are introduced in the content from a designer's perspective. · Discusses important aspects of radiation-tolerant analog IC design, including realistic applications and radiation effects on ICs; · Demonstrates radiation-hardened-by-design techniques through a design-test-radiation assessment practice; · Describes a new type of Time-to-Digital (TDC) converter designed for radiation-tolerant application; · Explains the design and measurement of all functional blocks (e.g., bandgap reference, relaxation oscillator) in the TDC.

This book is based on the 18 presentations during the 21st workshop on Advances in Analog Circuit Design. Expert designers provide readers with information about a variety of topics at the frontier of analog circuit design, including Nyquist analog-to-digital converters, capacitive sensor interfaces, reliability, variability, and connectivity. This book serves as a valuable reference to the state-of-the-art, for anyone involved in analog circuit research and development.

This book covers the most recent, advanced methods for designing mixed-signal integrated circuits, for radiation-hardened sensor readouts (capacitive) and frequency synthesizers (quadrature, digitally controlled oscillators and all-digital PLL etc.). The authors discuss the ionizing radiation sources, complex failure mechanisms as well as several mitigation strategies for avoiding such failures. Readers will benefit from an introduction to the essential theory and fundamentals of ionizing radiation and time-based signal processing, with the details of the implementation of several radiation-hardened IC prototypes. The radiation-hardening methods and solutions described are supported by theory and experimental data with, underlying tradeoffs. Discusses the basics of time-based signal processing and its effectiveness in mitigating ionizing radiation Provides mitigation strategies and recommendations for reducing radiation induced effects in Integrated Circuits Includes coverage of devices used in measuring radiation, focusing on semiconductor-based radiation sensors

This book presents state-of-the-art techniques for radiation hardened high-resolution Time-to-Digital converters and low noise frequency synthesizers. Throughout the book, advanced degradation mechanisms and error sources are discussed and several ways to prevent such errors are presented. An overview of the prerequisite physics of nuclear interactions is given that has been compiled in an easy to understand chapter. The book is structured in a way that different hardening techniques and solutions are supported by theory and experimental data with their various tradeoffs. Based on leading-edge research, conducted in collaboration between KU Leuven and CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research Describes in detail advanced techniques to harden circuits against ionizing radiation Provides a practical way to learn and understand radiation effects in time-based circuits Includes an introduction to the underlying physics, circuit design, and advanced techniques accompanied with experimental data

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Research on radiation-tolerant electronics has increased rapidly over the past few years, resulting in many interesting approaches to modeling radiation effects and designing radiation-hardened integrated circuits and embedded systems. This research is strongly driven by the growing need for radiation-hardened electronics for space applications, high-energy physics experiments such as those on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and many terrestrial nuclear applications including nuclear energy and nuclear safety. With the progressive scaling of integrated circuit technologies and the growing complexity of electronic systems, their susceptibility to ionizing radiation has raised many exciting challenges, which are expected to drive research in the coming decade. In this book we highlight recent breakthroughs in the study of radiation effects in advanced semiconductor devices, as well as in high-performance analog, mixed signal, RF, and digital integrated circuits. We also focus on advances in embedded radiation hardening in both FPGA and microcontroller systems and apply radiation-hardened embedded systems for cryptography and image processing, targeting space applications.