Radiation Tolerant, High Speed, Low Power, Gallium Arsenide Logic

Abstract

Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) circuits are largely immune to slowly accumulated radiation doses and therefore do not need the shielding required by complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices. This attribute renders GaAs circuits particularly attractive for space craft and military applications. However, it has been shown that GaAs circuits with short gate length transistors are excessively susceptible to single event upsets (SEU) due to enhanced charge collection at the edges of the gate called 'edge effect'. This thesis studies the SEU problem in two parts. Extensive computer modeling and simulation of a charged particle passing through various transistors of a low power, two-phase dynamic MESFET logic (IDFL) test chip was conducted using HSPICE in the first part. In the second part, new GaAs logic topologies are developed, simulated, and layed out in integrated circuits which require less power than directly coupled MESFET logic (DCFL) and should be less susceptible to single event upsets than TDFL circuits. Single event upset, Gallium arsenide logic.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA277293

Entities

People

  • Kurt A. Wolfe

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Compound Semiconductors
  • Computers
  • Engineering
  • Fabrication
  • Field Effect Transistors
  • Gallium Arsenides
  • Integrated Circuits
  • Ionizing Radiation
  • Logic Gates
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Radiation
  • Semiconductors
  • Simulations
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Transistors
  • United States
  • United States Naval Academy

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space