Measurement circuits for acquiring SET pulsewidth distribution with sub-FO1-inverter-delay resolution

This paper presents two circuits to measure pulse width distribution of single event transients (SETs). We first review requirements for SET measurement in accelerated neutron radiation test and point out problems of previous works, in terms of time resolution, time/area efficiency for obtaining large samples and certainty in absolute values of pulse width. We then devise two measurement circuits and a pulse generator circuit that satisfy all the requirements and attain sub-FO1-inverter-delay resolution, and propose a measurement procedure for assuring the absolute width values. The operation of one of the proposed circuits was confirmed by a preliminary radiation experiment of alpha particles with a fabricated test chip.