The Use of Inverse-Mode SiGe HBTs as Active Gain Stages in Low-Noise Amplifiers for the Mitigation of Single-Event Transients

A cascode configuration with inverse-mode (IM) common-emitter silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) is proposed for the mitigation of single-event transients (SETs) in low-noise amplifiers (LNAs). Conventionally, despite their SET-mitigation capability, IM SiGe HBTs have...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on nuclear science 2017-01, Vol.64 (1), p.359-366
Main Authors: Ickhyun Song, Moon-Kyu Cho, Lourenco, Nelson E., Fleetwood, Zachary E., Seungwoo Jung, Roche, Nicholas J.-H, Khachatrian, Ani, Buchner, Steven P., McMorrow, Dale, Paki, Pauline, Cressler, John D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cascode
Degradation
Frequency modulation
Germanium
Heterojunction bipolar transistors
inverse-mode
low-noise amplifier (LNA)
Mitigation
Noise
Noise figure
pulsed laser
Radiation
radiation-hardening-by-design (RHBD)
Radio frequency
Scaling
SiGe HBT
Silicon
Silicon germanides
Silicon germanium
single-event effect (SEE)
single-event transient (SET)
Transient analysis
two-photon absorption (TPA)
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Summary:A cascode configuration with inverse-mode (IM) common-emitter silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) is proposed for the mitigation of single-event transients (SETs) in low-noise amplifiers (LNAs). Conventionally, despite their SET-mitigation capability, IM SiGe HBTs have been considered to be unsuitable for active gain stages due to severe degradation in RF performance. However, with the benefits of aggressive technology scaling, the high frequency performance of IM SiGe HBTs has been significantly improved, thereby enabling them to be utilized in active gain stages with acceptable RF performance. The cascode with IM common-emitter and common-base SiGe HBTs is used for a 2.4 GHz prototype LNA and it achieves adequate RF gain (10 dB) and noise figure (1.9 dB). With regard to SET mitigation, a through-wafer two-photon absorption pulsed-laser experiment is conducted to test the efficacy of this radiation-hardening approach in an advanced 90 nm SiGe BiCMOS platform. The proposed IM-SiGe-HBT-based LNA exhibits 85% reduction in transient peaks compared to the conventional forward-mode cascode LNA.
ISSN:0018-9499
1558-1578
DOI:10.1109/TNS.2016.2603165