Single-Event Upset Responses of Metal-Oxide-Metal Capacitors and Diodes Used in Bulk 65-nm CMOS Analog Circuits

• Published in: IEEE transactions on nuclear science Vol. 67; no. 4; pp. 698 - 707
• Main Authors: Xu, Rui, Hsu, Chen-Kai, Kalani, Sarthak, Ban, Jaroslav, Wang, Qiang, Ochoa, Ines, Burton, Charles, Unal, Mesut, Sun, Nan, Kinget, Peter, Parsons, John, Andeen, Timothy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.04.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Active pixel sensors; Analog circuits; Capacitance; Capacitors; Circuits; CMOS; Detectors; Diodes; Ionization; Ionizing radiation; Metals; Metal–insulator structures; metal–insulator–metal; Method of moments; monolithic analog integrated circuits; Oscilloscopes; Radiation counters; Radiation effects; Single Event Effects; Single event upsets; single-event transient (SET); Substrates; Waveforms
• ISSN: 0018-9499; 1558-1578
• DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2020.2974229

The focus of this article is to characterize the behavior of metal-oxide-metal (MOM) capacitors when used in a switched-capacitor circuit in a standard 65-nm 1.2-V CMOS technology subject to ionizing radiation. The goal is twofold: first, to understand radiation-induced single-event effects on a fundamental building block of analog circuits unconstrained by a particular application and second, to explore the capacitor's use as a particle detector analogous to the diode active-pixel sensor. The single-event signal response from the diode and MOM capacitor structures were consistent with ionization; the behavior of the diode was consistent with previously published results. The diode single-event signal response exhibited a step-like waveform, whereas the MOM capacitor exhibited an exponential-decay waveform, thus indicating different detection mechanisms where liberated charges were, respectively, either collected or not collected.