Advanced Radiation Tolerant CMOS Oscillators

Single Event Effects (SEES) have usually been considered a result of charge collection in the source/drain junctions of a MOS transistor giving rise to Single-Event Phase Transients in the oscillator. Recently, we have made a groundbreaking discovery of a secondary and furthermore dominant mechanism LC oscillators which is caused by electron and hole pairs generated in the oxides (SiO2)surrounding the spiral inductor that cause Single-Event Frequency Transients(SEFT). Although inductors are passive structures, their electromagnetic behavior (parasitic capacitance) can be impacted by free charges inside and around their geometry. The main goal of the project is to understand this mechanism and develop techniques to reduce the impact on LC oscillators.