Rapid Annealing Response of the Hardened 1802 Bulk CMOS Microprocessor

Rapid annealing test results show that the hardened RCA/Sandia 1802 Bulk CMOS Microprocessor will function immediately after application of intense ionizing radiation pulses. This result was established in LINAC tests using a comprehensive test procedure which exercised the μP in logarithmic time intervals from 10 μs to 1000 s. It was found that no loss of functionality occurs for doses up to about 280 KRads. At 790 KRads, the device initially loses functionality but anneals in 600 ms. At 1.6 MRads, the device loses functionality for 4 s, and at 2.4 MRads, the device loses functionality for at least 1000 s. A sample size of five devices was used. The 1802 μP was tested using hardware and software especially designed for this purpose. The microprocessor was exercised using software routines of exponentially increasing length starting at 10 μs after the pulse. A measure of μP functionality was therefore provided at logarithmically increasing sample times, After 2 seconds was reached, the routines repeated every two seconds up to 1000 seconds when the test ended. The hardware and software are described in detail.