Radiation Effects from the Perspective of Analog IC Designer Radiation-Hard-by-Design

In space-borne, medical and high energy physics applications, the heart of a measurement system is usually an Integrated Circuit (IC). More and more often Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) are used instead of from-the-shelve products: ASIC offers lower power consumption than a standard IC or a discrete solution; also, higher measurement precision can be achieved, thanks to small capacitances and high speed, combined with a customized architecture.
This talk focuses on Total Ionizing Dose (TID) effects on integrated circuits (IC) and prospects for their mitigation through Radiation-Hard-by-Design (RHBD) techniques. It also discusses the radiation-hardened ASIC design flow, in particular emphasizing the issues of efficient irradiation tests and characterization of the integrated test structures.