Mitigation of single-event transients in high-frequency analog circuits using choke inductors

Abstract

Exposure to high-energy particles leads to a potential risk of generating single-event transients (SETs) in active devices of microelectronic circuits, compromising signal integrity. In order to mitigate the impact of SETs in the high-frequency analog circuits, we propose the use of choke inductors at the input and the output terminals, which provides low-impedance paths to transient currents that occupies low-frequency ranges. At high frequencies of operation, these choke inductors act as an open, thereby not affecting circuit performance. Through simulations and experiments using a low-noise amplifier (LNA) as a device under test, it was shown that the proposed structure effectively reduced sensitivity to SETs without degrading circuit performance. For quantitative comparison, reference LNA samples without choke inductors were prepared and analyzed as well. The proposed radiation-hardening-by-design approach offers improved reliability of analog circuits operating under radiation-intense environment.