Single event transient hardened delay cell for a differential ring VCO

• Published in: Microelectronics and reliability 2020-08, Vol.111, p.113721, Article 113721
• Main Authors: Karthigeyan, K.A., Radha, S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Differential delay cell; Phase displacement; Radiation hardening; Single event transient; Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO); Wide tuning range
• ISSN: 0026-2714; 1872-941X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.microrel.2020.113721

This paper presents a new single event transient hardened complementary delay cell (SET-H CDC) for radiation environment. The performance of the proposed topology has been compared with the existing radiation-hardened delay cell topologies called wide tuning delay cell and complementary delay cell (CDC). A three-stage VCO has been designed with each of the delay cell topologies for low power consumption while maintaining maximum swing. The VCO is designed using 90 nm CMOS process technology work with 1 Volt DC supply operating at 2.6 GHz frequency. The proposed topology shows better single event tolerance and reduced Impulse Sensitivity Function (ISF) while maintaining a rail-rail swing over a wide frequency tuning range. The proposed topology achieves a 17% improvement in rms ISF compared to wide tuning delay cell and 1.2% improvement compared to CDC delay cell. •It reports a new SET hardened complementary delay cell topology (SET-H CDC) for radiation hardness of differential ring (DR-VCO) designed using a 90 nm CMOS process running at 2.6 GHz frequency.•The phase displacement caused by SET ion hit for the proposed SET-H CDC delay cell is compared with the wide tuning delay cell and complementary delay cell (CDC). A theoretical analysis for choosing optimal resistor value for SET-H CDC delay cell is discussed.•The SET-H CDC delay cell topology achieves a 17% improvement in rms ISF compared to the wide tuning delay cell and 1.2% improvement compared to the CDC delay cell.