A Novel Radiation-Hardened Level Shifter Circuit Applied to High-Voltage DC-DC Converters for Aerospace Applications

This paper presents a novel radiation-hardened level shifter circuit suitable for high-voltage DC-DC converters in aerospace applications. The core circuit is strengthened against radiation by redundancy design. The output signals of the core circuit are radiation-hardened, utilizing back-to-back latches. A dual-interlocked RS flip-flop is employed to further enhance the radiation resistance of the core circuit output signal. The output stage of the level shifter circuit is protected against radiation utilizing AND gates. A DC-DC converter, including this radiation-hardened level shifter circuit, was fabricated using a 0.18 μm BCD process. The results of laser-induced single-event transient (SET) experiments show that the switching node voltage and output voltage of the DC-DC converter are stable under the condition of laser irradiation on sensitive areas, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed radiation-hardened design.