Silicon dosimeters based on Floating Gate Sensor: design, implementation and characterization

Abstract

A rad-hard monolithic dosimeter has been implemented and characterized in a standard 180 nm CMOS technology. The radiation sensor (C-sensor) is based on a Floating Gate (FG) MOS discharge principle. The output current is processed by a current-to-voltage (I/V) interface and then converted by a 5-bit flash ADC. The dosimeter is re-usable (FG can be recharged) and can detect a dose up to 1krad (Si) with a resolution of 30rad (Si) typical over temperature 0 to 85°C range. The ADC allows easy further signal processing for calibration and averaging, etc. The power consumption of C-sensor plus I/V interface is < 2mW from a 5 V power supply. The overall layout area is less than 0.25mm2. The Radiation-Hardened-By-Design (RHBD) approach guarantees that the absorbed dose does not degrade the circuitry.