Total Ionizing Dose Response of Triple-Well FET-Based Wideband, High-Isolation RF Switches in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

• Published in: IEEE transactions on nuclear science Vol. 60; no. 4; pp. 2567 - 2573
• Main Authors: Cardoso, Adilson S., Chakraborty, Partha S., Lourenco, Nelson E., Song, Peter, England, Troy D., Kenyon, Eleazar W., Karaulac, Nedeljko, Cressler, John D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.08.2013
• Subjects: High-isolation switch; ISO; Linearity; radiation; Radiation effects; Radio frequency; RF switch; SiGe BiCMOS; Silicon germanium; single-pole single-throw (SPST); Substrates; total ionization dose (TID); Transistors; Triple-Well FET
• ISSN: 0018-9499; 1558-1578
• DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2013.2261318

The effects of 63 MeV proton irradiation on the RF performance (insertion loss, isolation, and linearity) of triple-well nFET-based RF switches designed in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology are investigated. The switches were designed for wide-band operation (1 to 40 GHz) and were required by the application to achieve high isolation (> 35 dB at 40 GHz) with moderate insertion loss (dB at 40 GHz). The RF switch IL improves (S 21 increases) at 100 and 500 krad(SiO 2 ), but degrades (S 21 decreases) at 2 Mrad(SiO 2 ). P1dB and IIP3 (switch linearity) shows a similar TID response, at 100 and 500 krad(SiO 2 ) dose an increase of ~ 0.4 dBm and ~0.2 dBm, respectively. However, at 2 Mrad(SiO 2 ) both sharply decrease. Standalone RF and dc structures were also irradiated to better understand the underlying mechanisms affecting the switch RF performance. The bias dependence of the radiation-induced change on the measured RF performance of a SPST switch is also analyzed. 10 keV X-ray radiation experiments were conducted on separate dc transistor structures to provide additional insight into the measured impact of total ionization dose on the performance of RF switches.