Radiation Hardened Millimeter-Wave Receiver Implemented in 90-nm, SiGe HBT Technology

This article presents novel radiation hardening design techniques to substantially reduce the single-event effects (SEEs) on high-frequency receivers subject to various radiations when operating in space. A
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-band (75–110 GHz) receiver front-end implemented in Global Foundry’s 90-nm silicon–germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS technology is used for studying SEE and investigating the effectiveness of the proposed techniques. Specifically, the mixer is modified to allow for different modes of operation in addition to introducing matching considerations between the mixer’s gain and switching stages. The receiver includes integrated high-frequency signal sources to provide the input radio frequency (RF) and local oscillator (LO) signals for full operation of the proposed millimeter-wave (mmW) receiver. Measurements are taken while the receiver is in normal operation (RF and LO are applied). The design techniques are carefully analyzed via extensive simulations using equivalent transient current pulses obtained from calibrated technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulations. A two-photon absorption (TPA) pulsed laser experiment is used to induce transient currents in the silicon–germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor (SiGe HBT) circuit. Various devices within the mixer are hit from the back side through a hole in the designed printed circuit board (PCB). The propagated transients are then captured using a high-speed oscilloscope at the output of the receiver. The measurement results, supported by simulations and analysis, validate the robustness of the proposed radiation hardened receiver to SEE.