High Performance Rad Hard Analog to Digital Converter Architectures

Electronic components for future space based radar systems on chip (SOC) must function correctly in natural and radiation filled environments while providing state-of-the-art performance. The corresponding SOC must employ advanced, extra low-power, radiation-hardened (RH), analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) capable of operating at multi-giga sampling speeds. To satisfy the described needs, we propose to develop an ADC block with 9 bits of resolution and up to 10Gs/s of sampling speed. The 9 bit wide data will be demultiplexed by a factor of eight to a rate of 1.25Gb/s for direct loading into a following FPGA where signal processing will be performed. Our patent-pending radiation-hardening techniques incorporate a methodology based on protection and redundancy, which provides both total ionization dose (TID) and single-event upset (SEU) tolerance within the IC. The proposed high performance characteristics of the ADC will be achieved by utilizing an advanced SiGe IC fabrication technology.