Radiation-induced effects on the RIGEL ASIC

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Abstract

This paper describes the radiation tests performed on the RIGEL, the Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) designed within the scope of the PixDD project, whose goal is the production of a multi-pixel silicon-based detector system to be placed at the focal plane of X-ray optics on board space astronomy missions. Carried out at the RADiation Effects Facility of the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), the campaign aimed at studying the response of the ASIC to radiation damage, in the form of both Total Ionising Dose and Single Event Effects, especially latch-ups and bit upsets. Experimental results were then combined with simulations of the space environment for a low-inclination equatorial orbit and for a Sun-synchronous orbit. The analysis shows that the device under study may be safely operated on an equatorial orbit without any circuitry to protect it from transient radiation phenomena, whereas the need of such a precaution is necessary in the case of a Sun-synchronous orbit. According to the experimental results, the degradation due to Total Ionising Dose, measured in terms of Equivalent Noise Charge, stays below 10% up to 34krad, implying that it can be managed or neglected altogether for the simulated orbits.

Introduction

Spectral-timing studies in X-ray astrophysics are affected by the limitations of the instrumentation operating on board space missions. Currently, the most widespread device for this kind of measurements is the Charged-Coupled Device (CCD) whose use is limited to the observation of relatively faint sources, due to it being an integrating-imaging sensor, which therefore suffers heavily from phenomena such as dead time and pile-up. Moreover, instruments such as CCDs require low temperatures (<-70°C) to operate properly, which may constitute a significant design constraint for space-borne missions, where power is a particularly limited resource [1], [2], [3].

The PixDD project, short for Pixelated silicon Drift Detector, is a collaboration between the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Politecnico di Milano, University of Pavia, Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK), and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, which aims at developing a multi-pixel detector system based on the technology of Silicon Drift Detectors [4], [5], able to operate with good spectroscopic and timing performances even at room temperature or with mild cooling (FWHM150eV at 6keV at 0°C). In order to achieve those goals, a full-custom readout Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) is required, and great attention must be paid to the coupling between the two subsystems. PixDD is funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) within the framework of the Advanced Detectors for X-ray Astronomy (ADAM) programme.

The goal of the PixDD project is to devise a detection system that can fly on space astronomy missions, hence the device must be able to withstand the effects of the harsh orbital environment around the Earth, both in form of cumulative and transient effects. In fact, the ionisation tracks left behind by heavy ions through the sensitive layers of the device may cause the onset of sudden current spikes, whose effects may vary from reversible bit flips (Single Event Upsets or SEUs) to potentially catastrophic failure (Single Event Latch-ups or SELs) [6]. Furthermore, charges generated by high-energy particles and photons may get trapped in the surface oxide layers (Total Ionising Dose or TID) and, over time, degrade the spectroscopic performances of the ASIC.

In the next sections, an overview of the chip is presented (Section 2), followed by a description of the radiation tests (Section 3) and their results (Section 4). Finally, an attempt at predicting the in-orbit performances of the ASIC is provided (Section 5), before a summary and some conclusions (Section 6).

Section snippets

The RIGEL ASIC

Fabricated using AMS 0.35µm CMOS technology, selected due to its consolidated noise performance in spectroscopy-grade applications [7], the RIGEL is a two-dimensional mixed-signal multi-channel ASIC designed to be bump-bonded to a multi-pixel silicon detector to carry out spectral-timing (and imaging) studies [8], [9]. Developed within the scope of the PixDD project, its main characteristics are listed in Table 1, whereas its main functions are briefly outlined in the text below.

The version of

The RADEF irradiation facility

Part of the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), the RADiation Effects Facility or RADEF focuses on the investigation of the impact of radiation on electronic components for nuclear and accelerator physics, and for space applications [12], [13]. An ESA-supported European Component Irradiation Facility (ECIF) since 2005, RADEF offers a wide range of radiation sources, from electrons to protons and heavy ions. For the purposes of the measurement campaign described in this paper, the heavy ion beam

Latch-up measurements

As mentioned in Section 3.2, latch-up events are recorded as over-currents on the power supply lines of the ASIC. Due to the short time scale of the phenomenon in relation to the 1ms sampling time of the currents, it was not possible to study the temporal evolution of the currents during SELs. It is also important to point out that all the devices were successfully recovered after every SEL by the automatic shut-down procedure described in Section 3.2, no transient event going unmanaged or

Evaluation of in-orbit performances

In order to evaluate the performances of the RIGEL ASIC on board a future space mission, it is necessary to combine the results of the previous analysis with simulations of the orbital environment. Such calculations are performed via ESA’s SPace ENVironment Information System (SPENVIS), a web interface to model the space environment and its phenomena, such as radiation damage [19].

Following ESA’s guidelines [20], in our estimations, the AP8-MIN and AE8-MAX models are employed to describe

Conclusions

The irradiation campaign carried out at the Radiation Effects Facility at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) on the RIGEL ASIC shows that the device can be employed on board space missions.

Experimental measurements of latch-ups and bit upsets evidence a threshold LET for the two phenomena respectively equal to LETthSEL=10.63.0+9.5MeVcm2mg−1 and LETthSEU=4.10.4+4.7MeVcm2mg−1. A Monte Carlo approach has been followed throughout the analysis to mitigate the difficulty in constraining the

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) via the Advanced Detector for X-ray Astronomy (ADAM) programme (research agreement 2018-11-HH.0). The team would like to thank the entire personnel at RADEF, and especially H. Kettunen, for the technical and logistic support in organising and carrying out the irradiation campaign.

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