Boosting the total ionizing dose tolerance of digital switches by using OCTO SOI MOSFET

Abstract

© 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd.This paper performs an experimental comparative study of the total ionizing dose effects due to the x-ray radiation between the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) manufactured with octagonal gate geometry and the standard counterpart. Our main focus is on integrated transceivers for wireless communications and smart-power dc/dc converters for mobile electronics, where the transistor is used as the key switching element. It is shown that this innovative layout can reduce the total ionizing dose (TID) effects due to the special characteristics of the OCTO SOI MOSFET bird's beak regions, where longitudinal electrical field lines in these regions are not parallel to the drain and source regions. Consequently, the parasitic MOSFETs associated with these regions are practically deactivated.