New Testing Methodology of an Analog to Digital Converter for the LHC Mixed Radiation Field

In this work a commercial off the shelf Analog to Digital Converter (ADC), based on a Successive Approximation Register (SAR) structure, has been tested to verify Total Ionizing Dose (TID) effects and evaluate Single Event Upset (SEU) and Single Event Latch-up (SEL) cross sections. A well-known test is used to verify the SEU cross section with a constant input voltage; a new test method is proposed to measure the dynamic ADC performance, such as the Effective Number Of Bit (ENOB), continuously during the irradiation. The tests have been carried out at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) beam facility at 230 MeV, at CERN in a dedicated experimental area that recreates the same radiation environment of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tunnel, and at a heavy ion facility, especially for defining the SEL risk.