| Summary: | This final year project develops a new Radiation-Hardened-By-Design approach to detect Single Event Latchup (SEL) by monitoring the transient current slope, which is proven with reliable immunity to SEL. The object is to reduce the cost of Radiation-Hardened-By-Process technique by benefiting from the low cost mass produced integrated circuits. A comprehensive literature review is conducted and it is found that the SEL current ramps up sharply with an increasing slope. This distinguishing characteristic is verified through both theoretical analysis and reasonable model simulations. The desired SEL detection and protection circuit is designed based on the verified current characteristic. Firstly, the SEL triggering current is converted into a corresponding voltage variation through the Current-to-Voltage converter stage. Secondly, the voltage is sampled and fed into the comparator stage. Thirdly, a high speed comparator stage with proper hysteresis is designed to detect the SEL occurrence and generate corresponding output logic. Lastly, the output logic modulation stage is designed to filter out noises and reshape the output logic. Overall, this project proposes a useful method of the SEL detection and protection design.
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