Modeling Total-Dose Effects for a Low-Dropout Voltage Regulator

Ramachandran, V.; Narasimham, B.; Fleetwood, D.M.; Schrimpf, R.D.; Holman, W.T.; Witulski, A.F.; Pease, R.L.; Dunham, G.W.; Seiler, J.E.; Platteter, D.G.

doi:10.1109/tns.2006.885377

Cited by 19 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…This kind of behavior is usually due to the degradation of the start-up circuit of the device. It has already been observed on similar devices such as voltage regulators, which use also bandgap-based circuits like in [15] for instance, where the current gain degradation of one of the input PNP transistors was leading to the increase of the start-up voltage required to enable the regulation.…”

Section: ) High Dose Rate (Hdr)mentioning

confidence: 91%

“…In the LM334, the feedback reaction is connected to Q2 and thus can be affected by a current leakage on Q2. To simulate the C-E leakage parts, high resistances are placed between the collector and emitter terminals of Q1 and Q2 in the same way as in [15]. By decreasing their values, it is possible to simulate the increase of current leakage due to radiation.…”

Section: B Current Leakage Increasementioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of Bipolar Integrated Circuit Degradation Mechanisms Against Combined TID–DD Effects

Ferraro

Alía

Danzeca

et al. 2021

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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Integrated Circuits sensitive to both Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and Displacement Damage (DD) effects can exhibit degradation profiles resulting from a combination of degradation mechanisms induced by both effects. This work presents circuit simulations based on experimental data to explain degradation mechanisms induced by combined TID and DD effects on a bipolar IC current source. First, the effect of the degradation of each internal transistor on the circuit's response is evaluated by applying electrical parametric changes. Then simulations are performed from different degradation scenarios based on observed circuit behaviors to reproduce the different TID, DD, and combined TID-DD responses. These simulations show that a synergistic interaction between a current leakage induced by DD on a transistor located in the bandgap reference part with the gain degradation of a current mirror induced by both TID and DD appears to be responsible for the combined TID-DD response. It is also shown that the circuit degradation rate depends on the DDD/TID rate ratios encountered during the exposition.

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Section: ) High Dose Rate (Hdr)mentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: B Current Leakage Increasementioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Bipolar Integrated Circuit Degradation Mechanisms Against Combined TID–DD Effects

Ferraro

Alía

Danzeca

et al. 2021

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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“…Voltage regulators are widely used for electronic circuit power supply in aerospace, nuclear and military systems [1][2][3][4], where a harsh radiation environment heavily affects the electron devices' reliability [5]. Lowdropout voltage regulators are particularly important in battery-powered systems [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Usually, low-dropout voltage regulators are bipolar or BiCMOS circuits, which are based on bipolar transistors as the basic components. A considerable part of the voltage regulator chip is occupied by power transistors [3,4], in both serial and driver element roles. PNP power devices are usually used to achieve a very low dropout voltage on the serial transistor.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An LTspice Simulation Model of Gamma-radiation Effects and Annealing in a Voltage Regulator With a Lateral Serial PNP Transistor With Round Emitters

Vukić

2019

Informacije MIDEM

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The aim of this paper was to determine the reasons for a complex radiation response of the commercial-off-the-shelf LM2940CT5 low-dropout voltage regulator. Examination of this circuit in a gamma-radiation environment disqualified its use when operated with relatively high output currents, while its radiation tolerance was satisfactory when load current was approximately one-tenth (or lower) of the nominal value. In order to obtain a more thorough insight into the radiation response of this integrated circuit, a detailed SPICE model was developed. This model enabled mutual comparison of the influence of serial and driver PNP power transistor parameters: forward emitter current gain, knee current and emitter resistance. The serial lateral PNP power transistor with round emitters was identified as the weakest element that crucially affected the entire circuit radiation tolerance. The effects of gamma-radiation were examined for total doses up to 500 Gy followed by three sequences of annealing. Detailed characteristics of Beta(Ic) were procured for four different kinds of bias and load conditions during irradiation. The emitter resistance increase of the serial power transistor was a primary reason for the low radiation tolerance of the entire voltage regulator; it was much more influential than the perceived decline of the PNP power transistor forward emitter current gain.

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“…The re sponse of volt age reg u la tors in the ra di ation en vi ron ment has been in ten sively ex am ined in previ ous years, pri mar ily due to their ad van tages over switch ing reg u la tors: a sim ple elec tric cir cuit, low price, re duced noise and rapid tran sient re sponse to load con di tions [1]. Con cern over the ex am i na tion of voltage reg u la tors par tic u larly arose af ter the dis cov ery of the en hanced low dose rate sen si tiv ity (ELDRS) ef fect, lead ing to the anal y sis of nu mer ous pro ce dures an tic ipated for the pro cure ment of pre cise in for ma tion on the ra di a tion tol er ance of sam ples de signed for ser vice on sat el lites in the space ra di a tion en vi ron ment [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Minimum dropout voltage on a serial pnp transistor of a moderately loaded voltage regulator in a gamma radiation field

Vukić

2012

NUCL TECH RAD PROT

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The main examined value in an experiment performed on moderately loaded voltage regulators was the serial pnp transistor’s minimum dropout voltage, followed by the data on the base current and forward emitter current gain. Minimum dropout voltage decreased by up to 12%, while the measured values of the forward emitter current gain decreased by 20-40% after the absorption of a total ionizing dose of 500 Gy. The oxide trapped charge increased the radiation tolerance of the serial lateral pnp transistor owing to the suppression of interface trap formation above the base area. Current flow through the serial transistor of the voltage regulator had an influence on the decrease in the power pnp transistor’s forward emitter current gain. Due to the operation with a moderate load of 100 mA, loss of emitter injection efficiency was not as important as during the operation with high current density, thus eliminating the negative influence of emitter crowding on the radiation hardness of the voltage regulator. For a moderate load, gain in the negative feedback reaction was enough to keep output voltage in the anticipated range. Only information procured from tests of the minimum dropout voltage on the moderately loaded voltage regulators were not sufficient for unequivocal determination of the examined integrated circuit’s radiation hardness. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 171007: Physical and functional effects of the interaction of radiation with electrical and biological systems

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Modeling Total-Dose Effects for a Low-Dropout Voltage Regulator

Cited by 19 publications

References 9 publications

Analysis of Bipolar Integrated Circuit Degradation Mechanisms Against Combined TID–DD Effects

Analysis of Bipolar Integrated Circuit Degradation Mechanisms Against Combined TID–DD Effects

An LTspice Simulation Model of Gamma-radiation Effects and Annealing in a Voltage Regulator With a Lateral Serial PNP Transistor With Round Emitters

Minimum dropout voltage on a serial pnp transistor of a moderately loaded voltage regulator in a gamma radiation field

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