Radiation Damage in Power MOSFET Optocouplers

Radiation damage is investigated in optocouplers with power MOSFET output stages. They differ from conventional optocouplers, incorporating an intermediate photovoltaic chip to allow the MOSFET gate voltage to be controlled by the light-emitting diode. These optocouplers are sensitive to ionization as well as displacement damage, and can fail catastrophically from degradation in either the power MOSFET or the LED. Radiation testing must take both mechanisms into account.