An Ionizing Dose Hardness Assurance Technique for CMOS Ics

ull Circle Research, Inc. (FCR) proposes a SBIR program to develop a proprietary concept, invented at FCR, which will permit non-destructive 100% screening of digital CMOS integrated circuits for total dose (TD) hardness. This technique will permit radiation tolerant ICs to be binned into groups of differing total dose hardness, rather than being specified at he lowest hardness level in the distribution. Similarly, it would permit a wide variety of commercial (COTS) ICs to be used in both commercial and military space systems in environments in which ionizing radiation would otherwise prevent their use. (The technique was originally proposed in 1995, but was not selected for funding. Since then, experimental data, presented in this proposal, has been obtained that has led FCR to re-submit the concept for consideration as a Phase I program.) The technique does not require that lot traceability be maintained (which is difficult in the commercial world), does not require special test chips ( which may not be available from commercial IC lines), does not degrade he r liability of the device, and is compatible with accepted Hardness Assurance methods.