Prediction Method for Total Dose Effects on Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Integrated Circuits

A method is described to predict radiation hardness of general purpose logic ICs using device parameters measured by total dose testing of "elemental ICs" selected from an IC family. The total dose degradation on ICs can be predicted by simulations using their back-fitted device parameter shift data and circuits data. This method was applied to CMOS logic ICs of the HD74HC series. The HD74HC04 inverter was selected as the elemental IC, and irradiated up to 300 Gy to determine the threshold voltage shifts of n- and p-channel MOS FETs. Using the back-fitted threshold voltage shifts of the n- and p-channels, the degradation of the static characteristic and propagation delay time of the HD74HCO4 were predicted up to a large total dose, 2, 000 Gy, at functional failure.