Evidence of Pulse Quenching in AND and OR Gates by Experimental Probing of Full Single-Event Transient Waveforms

We present experimental results obtained from full-waveform measurements of single-event transients (SETs) occurring in the conventional two-input AND and OR gates under focused heavy-ion radiation. Chips with test circuits were fabricated in a 65-nm bulk CMOS technology, and were irradiated in a microbeam facility using
¹⁹⁷
Au and
⁴⁸
Ca species. The resulting SETs were sensed using a dedicated on-chip analog multiplexer circuit. The obtained position-dependent ion hit responses were analyzed, and the strong evidence of charge-sharing-induced pulse quenching was observed. For SETs that propagated through the inverting stage of AND and OR circuits, a significant degradation of measured SET pulse widths and heights was seen. These observations are in good accordance with earlier published simulation and experimental results based on inverter chains. Test circuits also exhibited distinct SET responses depending on their logic state, making the AND gate a better candidate for exploiting the pulse quenching effect when circuits are placed in a triple well.