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Extreme-Environment Electronics: Challenges and Solutions

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A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microelectronics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2021) | Viewed by 24457

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ickhyun Song

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Guest Editor

Department of Electronic Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Interests: extreme-environment electronics; high-frequency/speed analog circuits; memory devices
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, research and investigations into extreme-environment electronics have been actively conducted. In the initial design phase, accurate predictions and evaluations are critically important because electronics operating in harsh environments can exhibit significant long- and short-term performance degradation.

Extreme environmental conditions include radiation effects such as total ionizing dose and single-event effects, a wide range of ambient temperatures, and mechanical stress, amongst others. Applications span from space electronics, such as satellites and spacecraft, to nuclear powerplant systems and cryogenic quantum computing.

Successful implementation requires accurate modeling of operating conditions, appropriate calibration methods, degradation simulations, and performance measurement. In addition, due to aggressive technology scaling and system integration, it is essential to develop efficient design and test techniques relevant to extreme-environment electronics.

The topics to be covered in this Special Issue are as follows:

Investigation of radiation effects in electronics;
Radiation-hardening design approaches and techniques;
Design, simulation, measurement, and new applications of extreme-environment electronics;
Cryogenic/high-temperature operation and related issues;
Electronic systems for nuclear power plants and facilities;
Electronics in other harsh conditions such as mechanical and chemical stress.

Dr. Ickhyun Song
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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11 pages, 7528 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design, Application, and Verification of the Novel SEU Tolerant Abacus-Type Layouts

by Yi Sun, Zhi Li, Ze He and Yaqing Chi

Electronics 2021, 10(23), 3017; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10233017 - 3 Dec 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1644

Abstract

Radiation tolerance improvements for advanced technologies have attracted considerable interests in space application. In this paper, the single event upset (SEU) hardened double interlocked storage cell (DICE) D-type flip-flops (DFFs) with abacus-type time-delay cell are proposed and successfully implemented in our test chips. The layout structures of two kinds of abacus-type time-delay cells are illustrated, and their hardening effectiveness are verified by our simulations and heavy ion irradiations. The systematic heavy ion experimental results show that the applied abacus-type time-delay cells can reduce the SEU cross sections of DICE DFFs significantly, and even the SEU immune is observed for the full “0” data pattern. Besides, an apparent test mode dependency of the abacus-type hardened circuits is also observed. The results indicate that the nanoscale abacus structure may be suitable for space application in harsh radiation environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Extreme-Environment Electronics: Challenges and Solutions)

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16 pages, 4177 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Risk Assessment for the Use of COTS Devices in Space Systems under Consideration of Radiation Effects

by Jan Budroweit and Hagen Patscheider

Electronics 2021, 10(9), 1008; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10091008 - 23 Apr 2021

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 5212

Abstract

In this paper, a new approach is presented to assess the risk of using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices in space systems under consideration of radiation effects that can dramatically affect reliability and performance. In the NewSpace era, the use of COTS has become mandatory, since typical space-qualified (class-1) electrical, electronic and electromechanical (EEE) components for space missions are no longer attractive due to their extremely high costs, long lead times and low performance. This paper sets out the usual constraints for COTS devices and proposes a guideline on how to select non-space-qualified components and when class-1 EEE devices are recommended for use. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Extreme-Environment Electronics: Challenges and Solutions)

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14 pages, 3592 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation Method of Heavy-Ion-Induced Single-Event Upset in 3D-Stacked SRAMs

by Peixiong Zhao, Tianqi Liu, Chang Cai, Ze He, Dongqing Li and Jie Liu

Electronics 2020, 9(8), 1230; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9081230 - 30 Jul 2020

Viewed by 3064

Abstract

The interaction of radiation with three-dimensional (3D) electronic devices can be determined through the detection of single-event effects (SEU). In this study, we propose a method for the evaluation of SEUs in 3D static random-access memories (SRAMs) induced by heavy-ion irradiation. The cross-sections (CSs) of different tiers, as a function of the linear energy transfer (LET) under high, medium, and low energy heavy-ion irradiation, were obtained through Monte Carlo simulations. The simulation results revealed that the maximum value of the CS was obtained under the medium-energy heavy-ion penetration, and the effect of penetration range of heavy ions was observed in different tiers of 3D-stacked devices. The underlying physical mechanisms of charge collection under different heavy-ion energies were discussed. Thereafter, we proposed an equation of the critical heavy-ion range that can be used to obtain the worst CS curve was proposed. Considering both the LET spectra and flux of galactic cosmic ray (GCR) and the variation in the heavy-ion Bragg peak values with the atomic number, we proposed a heavy-ion irradiation test guidance for 3D-stacked devices. In addition, the effectiveness of this method was verified through simulations of the three-tier vertically stacked SRAM and the ultrahigh-energy heavy-ion irradiation experiment of the two-tier vertically stacked SRAM. this study provides a theoretical framework for the detection of SEUs induced by heavy-ion irradiation in 3D-integrated devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Extreme-Environment Electronics: Challenges and Solutions)

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9 pages, 2873 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Design and Analysis of f_T-Doubler-Based RF Amplifiers in SiGe HBT Technology

by Md Arifur R. Sarker and Ickhyun Song

Electronics 2020, 9(5), 772; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9050772 - 8 May 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3862

Abstract

For performance-driven systems such as space-based applications, it is important to maximize the gain of radio-frequency amplifiers (RFAs) with a certain tolerance against radiation, temperature effects, and small form factor. In this work, we present a K-band, compact high-gain RFA using an f_T-doubler topology in a silicon-germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) technology platform. The through-silicon vias (TSVs), typically used for small-size chip packaging purposes, have been effectively utilized as an adjustable matching element for input impedance, reducing the overall area of the chip. The proposed RFA, fabricated in a modest 0.35 µm SiGe technology, achieves a gain of 14.1 dB at 20 GHz center frequency, and a noise figure (NF) of 11.2 dB at the same frequency, with a power consumption of 3.3 mW. The proposed design methodology can be used for achieving high gain, avoiding a complex multi-stage amplifier design approach. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Extreme-Environment Electronics: Challenges and Solutions)

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12 pages, 3994 KiB

Open AccessArticle

SEE Sensitivity Evaluation for Commercial 16 nm SRAM-FPGA

by Chang Cai, Shuai Gao, Peixiong Zhao, Jian Yu, Kai Zhao, Liewei Xu, Dongqing Li, Ze He, Guangwen Yang, Tianqi Liu and Jie Liu

Electronics 2019, 8(12), 1531; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics8121531 - 12 Dec 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3846

Abstract

Radiation effects can induce severe and diverse soft errors in digital circuits and systems. A Xilinx commercial 16 nm FinFET static random-access memory (SRAM)-based field-programmable gate array (FPGA) was selected to evaluate the radiation sensitivity and promote the space application of FinFET ultra large-scale integrated circuits (ULSI). Picosecond pulsed laser and high energy heavy ions were employed for irradiation. Before the tests, SRAM-based configure RAMs (CRAMs) were initialized and configured. The 100% embedded block RAMs (BRAMs) were utilized based on the Vivado implementation of the compiled hardware description language. No hard error was observed in both the laser and heavy-ion test. The thresholds for laser-induced single event upset (SEU) were ~3.5 nJ, and the SEU cross-sections were correlated positively to the laser’s energy. Multi-bit upsets were measured in heavy-ion and high-energy laser irradiation. Moreover, latch-up and functional interrupt phenomena were common, especially in the heavy-ion tests. The single event effect results for the 16 nm FinFET process were significant, and some radiation tolerance strategies were required in a radiation environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Extreme-Environment Electronics: Challenges and Solutions)

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Review

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27 pages, 1333 KiB

Open AccessReview

A Survey of Analog-to-Digital Converters for Operation under Radiation Environments

by Ernesto Pun-García and Marisa López-Vallejo

Electronics 2020, 9(10), 1694; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9101694 - 15 Oct 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4875 | Correction

Abstract

In this work, we analyze in depth multiple characteristic data of a representative population of radenv-ADCs (analog-to-digital converters able to operate under radiation). Selected ADCs behave without latch-up below 50 MeV·cm²/mg and are able to bear doses of ionizing radiation above 50 krad(Si). An exhaustive search of ADCs with radiation characterization data has been carried out throughout the literature. The obtained collection is analyzed and compared against the state of the art of scientific ADCs, which reached years ago the electrical performance that radenv-ADCs provide nowadays. In fact, for a given Nyquist sampling rate, radenv-ADCs require significantly more power to achieve lower effective resolution. The extracted performance patterns and conclusions from our study aim to serve as reference for new developments towards more efficient implementations. As tools for this purpose, we have conceived FOM