Comparing Third-Order Digital Modulation Schemes for SEU Resilience in RF Receivers Due to SETs in the SiGe LNA

Three third-order digital modulation schemes, rectangular 8-quadrature amplitude modulation (8-QAM), 8-phase shift keying (8-PSK), and star 8-QAM are compared for RF receiver-level single-event upset (SEU) sensitivity using laser pulses to strike the low-noise amplifier (LNA). Star 8-QAM had significantly better SEU resilience than 8-PSK and rectangular 8-QAM, suggesting that the choice of the constellation mapping could be effective for mitigating SEUs due to single-event transients (SETs) in the LNAs of RF receivers.