Design and Characterization of a Radiation Tolerant Triple Mode Redundant Sense Amplifier Flip-Flop for Space Applications

One of the more recently proposed flip-flop designs has been the sense amplifier flip-flop. It has gained acceptance in the commercial realm because of its power consumption, speed, setup time, clock line loading, and data line loading characteristics. In this thesis, a recently designed RADHARD version of D sense amplifier flip-flop was taken and a triple mode redundant version for space and radiation environment use was created. The design was created with valuable options to increase radiation hardness and to give end users greater flexibility in realizing their own radiation hardened version of flip-flop. In addition, a methodology for using a traditional circuit simulation tool, SPICE, was developed to test the operation of the flip-flop design for both normal conditions and under the influence of radiation. The prescribed level of radiation resilience was chosen to reflect the upper bound of radiation tolerant design which is equivalent to a 100MeV Fe ion interaction with Si. This work provides the results of the design effort and the characteristics of the final triple mode redundant sense amplifier flip-flop design both as a device which did not utilize any of the options created for use with the design and with various combinations of options employed. This work also provides information on a revolutionary technology coined by the author SIC Technology, Sensor and Integrated Circuit Technology which when used in conjunction with the triple mode design of this work would realize a self-sensing, self-correcting, and self-repairing triple mode design which would be of immeasurable benefit to space applications, avionics, and terrestrial applications the world over.