Abstract
Ionizing radiation degrades the electrical characteristics of MOS devices, reducing their reliability, performance, and lifetime; therefore, hardening techniques are required for the proper functioning of those devices when exposed to harsh environments. Nonetheless, in the context of design flow automation, necessary to synthesize complex digital circuits, there is a lack of reliable foundry-provided Radiation Hardening by Design (RHBD) cell libraries. In this work, a complete RHBD flow methodology employing enclosed-layout transistors (ELTs) and guard rings, transparent to the designer, and fully compatible with commercial CAD tools and standard fabrication processes is presented. The proposed flow includes the automated calculation of the effective aspect ratio of the ELTs for annular and rectangular topologies, and a template proposal for digital cells, as well as series and parallel arrangements. Moreover, calculation of aspect ratio between pull-up and down networks and output buffers sizing using Logical Effort (LE) methodology, i.e., timing optimization accounting for typical commercial digital design constraints, is considered. Test structures, enclosing single n,pMOS devices, series and parallel arrangements, inverter cells, ring oscillators, and output buffers, were fabricated in two different technology nodes (600 nm and 180 nm). The experimental results were compared to SPICE simulations performed using the models here implemented. The results indicate that the flow methodology is feasible to implement and fully compatible with the CAD tools employed for circuit design. Besides, two case studies were first silicon-proven, presenting fully functional behavior under typical conditions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anelli G, Campbell M, Delmastro M, Faccio F, Floria S, Giraldo A, Heijne E, Jarron P, Kloukinas K, Marchioro A, Moreira P, Snoeys W (1999) Radiation tolerant VLSI circuits in standard deep submicron CMOS technologies for the LHC experiments: practical design aspects. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci 46 (6):1690–1696
Anelli G (2000) Conception et caractérisation de circuits intégrés résistants aux radiations pour les détecteurs de particules du LHC en technologies CMOS submicroniques profondes, France, thèse de doctorat dirigée par Velazco Raoul microélectronique Grenoble INPG 2000
Chen L, Gingrich D (2005) Study of N-channel MOSFETs with an enclosed-gate layout in a 0.18 μm CMOS technology. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci 52(4):861–867
Flores-Nigaglioni A, Contreras-Ospino BM, Ducoudray GO, Palomera R (2015) Comparative analysis and parameter extraction automation of annular MOSFETs. In: Proceedings of IEEE 58th international midwest symposium on circuits and systems (MWSCAS), pp 1–4
Giraldo A, Paccagnella A, Minzoni A (2000) Aspect ratio calculation in n-channel MOSFETs with a gate-enclosed layout. Solid-State Electron 44(6):981–989
Knudsen JE, Clark LT (2006) An area and power efficient radiation hardened by design flip-flop. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci 53(6):3392–3399
Lee MS, Lee HC (2013) Dummy gate-assisted n-MOSFET layout for a radiation-tolerant integrated circuit. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci 60(4):3084–3091
López P, Blanco-Filgueira B, Pardo F, Cabello D, Hauer J (2009) A 2D model for radiation-hard CMOS annular transistors. Semicond Sci Technol 24(12):125009
Matos JM, Carrabina J, Reis A (2018) Efficiently mapping VLSI circuits with simple cells. IEEE Trans Comput-Aided Des Integr Circ Syst PP(99):1–1
Mclain M, Barnaby H, Esqueda I, Oder J, Vermeire B (2009) Reliability of high performance standard two-edge and radiation hardened by design enclosed geometry transistors. In: Proceedings of IEEE international reliability physics symposium, pp 174–179
Nowlin R, McEndree S, Wilson AL, Alexander D (2005) A new total-dose-induced parasitic effect in enclosed-geometry transistors. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci 52(6):2495–2502
Rabaey J, Chandrakasan A, Nikolić B (2003) Digital integrated circuits: a design perspective, 2nd edn. ser. Prentice Hall electronics and VLSI series, P. E., Upper Saddle River
Snoeys W, Gutierrez T, Anelli G (2002) A new NMOS layout structure for radiation tolerance. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci 49(4):1829–1833
Sutherland I, Sproull B, Harris D (1999) Logical effort: designing fast CMOS circuits. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco
Systems CD (2012) Cadence SKILL IDE user guide, 6th edn. Cadence Design Systems, USA
Tsividis Y, McAndrew C (2011) Operation and modeling of the MOS transistor, ser Oxford series in electrical and computer engineering. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Vaz PI, Junior AW, Wirth GI (2015) Techniques for square ELT simulation: a comparative study. In: Proceedings of IEEE 6th Latin American symposium on circuits systems (LASCAS), pp 1–4
Vaz PI, Wirth GI (2015) Design and comparative performance simulation of RHBD inverter cells in 180nm CMOS. In: Proceedings of 30th symposium on microelectronics technology and devices (SBMicro), pp 1–4
Velazco R, Foillat P, Reis R, Boudenot J-C, Schrimpf RD (2007) Radiation effects on embedded systems. Springer, Dordrecht London
Weste N, Harris D (2010) CMOS VLSI design a circuits and systems perspective, 4th edn. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading
Xue F, Ping L, Wei L, Bin Z, Xiaodong X, Gang W, Bin H, Yahong Z (2011) Gate-enclosed NMOS transistors. J Semicond 32(8):084002,08
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank CNPq for financial support.
This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible Editor: R. D. Blanton
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Vaz, P.I., Both, T.H., Vidor, F.F. et al. Design Flow Methodology for Radiation Hardened by Design CMOS Enclosed-Layout-Transistor-Based Standard-Cell Library. J Electron Test 34, 735–747 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-018-5760-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-018-5760-7