Pulsed-Laser-Induced Single-Event Upset in Dynamic Comparator by Incorporating Experimental Parameters Into Simulations

The pulsed-laser-induced single-event effect (SEE) technique has been developed for decades to provide an alternative method for testing the radiation durability of circuits under a radiation environment. In recent years, more works have been done to introduce simulation into this research field to assist the test as an analyzing tool. In this article, pulsed laser is used to scan over a self-designed dynamic comparator to perform pulsed-laser-induced single-event upset (SEU) experiments. The simulation built based on the chip’s element is also done to find out the dynamic comparator’s SEU-sensitive position. The related parameters of the experiment and information about the dynamic comparator are given for constructing the simulation. It is found that the peak value of transient current induced by pulsed laser on different sensitive positions is varied from 550 to $900~\mu $ A, while the current peak threshold for our self-designed dynamic comparator to generate SEU signal is around $817~\mu $ A. Thus, it turns out the result that the sensitive position found by simulation is in good agreement with the experimental results. This work shows the feasibility of conducting simulation in the SEE research field. Furthermore, linear energy transfer (LET) is also calculated, which is helpful for equivalent pulsed-laser-induced and ion-induced SEE test to improve the circuit’s radiation-hardening design for actual application. This work performs a series of demonstrations showing that the simulation, with sufficient information, can assist the SEE experiment, provide important information for analysis of the sensitive area of devices under test (DUTs), and make a demonstration for the feasibility of simulation to be combined into SEE testing, which could improve the circuit’s radiation-hardening technology.