Radiation response of SiGe BiCMOS mixed-signal circuits intended for emerging lunar applications

The effects of proton irradiation on the performance of key devices and mixed-signal circuits fabricated in a SiGe BiCMOS IC design platform and intended for emerging lunar missions are presented. High-voltage (HV) transistors, SiGe bandgap reference (BGR) circuits, a general-purpose high input impedance operational amplifier (op amp), and a 12-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) are investigated. The circuits were designed and implemented in a first-generation SiGe BiCMOS technology and were irradiated with 63 MeV protons. The degradation due to proton fluence in each device and circuit was found to be minor, suggesting that SiGe HBT BiCMOS technology could be a robust platform for building electronic components intended for operation under extreme environments.