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In memory semiconductors such as a static random access memory (SRAM), a common problem is soft errors under radiation environment. These soft errors cause bit flips, which are referred to as single event upsets (SEUs). Some radiation-hardened SRAM cells such as a Quatro SRAM, we-Quatro SRAM, and DICE SRAM cells have been reported for years. However, these designs have the disadvantage of taking up more area than a conventional 6T SRAM cell. Thus, we propose a radiation-hardened SRAM cell design that we named capacitor-static random access memory (C-SRAM) without area overhead. The C-SRAM is formed by simply adding a capacitor to the conventional 6T SRAM. It was designed to mitigate the radiation effect using the conservation law of electrical charge. Moreover, it has the same cell size as the conventional 6T SRAM cell. Its static noise margins (SNMs), which are indicators of operational stability, are equal to the conventional 6T SRAM values of 530 mV, 220 mV, and 860 mV in hold, read, and write modes, respectively. The results of the SEU simulation test showed that it had 4.761 times better flipping tolerance than the conventional 6T SRAM with a charge value of 247.494 fC. In addition, irradiation experiments also confirmed that the C-SRAM cell was more tolerant than the 6T SRAM cell. The conventional 6T SRAM and C-SRAM were fabricated using a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process.

In this work, single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) were fabricated using the standard 180 nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor process. Their small size of 15–16 μ m and low operating voltage made it possible to easily integrate them with readout circuits for compact on-chip sensors, particularly those used in the radiation sensor network of a nuclear plant. Four architectures were proposed for the SPADs, with a shallow trench isolation (STI) guard ring and different depletion regions designed to demonstrate the main performance parameters in each experimental configuration. The wide absorption region structure with PSD and a deep N-well could achieve a uniform electric field, resulting in a stable dark count rate (DCR). Additionally, the STI guard ring was implanted to mitigate the premature edge breakdown. A breakdown voltage was achieved for a low operating voltage of 10.75 V. The DCR results showed 286.3 Hz per μm2 at an excess voltage of 0.04 V. A photon detection probability of 21.48% was obtained at 405 nm.

The development of radiation-tolerant radio-frequency (RF) systems can be a solution for applications in extreme radiation environments, such as nuclear power plant monitoring and space exploration. Among the crucial components within an RF system, the low noise amplifier (LNA) stands out due to its vulnerability to TID effects, mainly relying on transistors as its main devices. In this study, the TID effects in the LNA using standard 0.18 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS) technology are estimated and analyzed. The results show that the LNA can withstand absorbed radiation up to 100 kGy. The S21, S11, noise figure (NF), stability (K), and linearity of the third input intercept point (IIP3) slightly shifted from the initial values of 0.8312 dB, 0.793 dB, 0.00381 dB, 1.34406, and 2.36066 dBm, respectively which are still comparable to the typical performances. Moreover, the standard 0.18 μ m technology has demonstrated its radiation tolerance, as it exhibits negligible performance degradation in the conventional LNA even when exposed to radiation levels up to 100 kGy. In this context, simulation approach offers a means to predict the TID effects and estimate the radiation exposure limit for electronic devices, particularly when transistors are used as the primary RF components.

This paper presents a radiation-hardened-by-design preamplifier that utilizes a self-compensation technique with a charge-sensitive amplifier (CSA) and replica for total ionizing dose (TID) effects. The CSA consists of an operational amplifier (OPAMP) with a 6-bit binary weighted current source (BWCS) and feedback network. The replica circuit is utilized to compensate for the TID effects of the CSA. Two comparators can detect the operating point of the replica OPAMP and generate appropriate signals to control the switches of the BWCS. The proposed preamplifier was fabricated using a general-purpose complementary metal-oxide-silicon field effect transistor 0.18 μm process and verified through a test up to 230 kGy (SiO2) at a rate of 10.46 kGy (SiO2)/h. The code of the BWCS control circuit varied with the total radiation dose. During the verification test, the initial value of the digital code was 39, and a final value of 30 was observed. Furthermore, the preamplifier output exhibited a maximum variation error of 2.39%, while the maximum rise-time error was 1.96%. A minimum signal-to-noise ratio of 49.64 dB was measured.

In nuclear-related facilities, such as nuclear power plants, research reactors, accelerators, and nuclear waste storage sites, radiation detection, and mapping are required to prevent radiation overexposure. Sensor network systems consisting of radiation sensor interfaces and wxireless communication units have become promising tools that can be used for data collection of radiation detection that can in turn be used to draw a radiation map. During data collection, malfunctions in some of the sensors can occasionally occur due to radiation effects, physical damage, network defects, sensor loss, or other reasons. This paper proposes a reproduction strategy for radiation maps using a U-net model to compensate for the loss of radiation detection data. To perform machine learning and verification, 1,561 simulations and 417 measured data of a sensor network were performed. The reproduction results show an accuracy of over 90%. The proposed strategy can offer an effective method that can be used to resolve the data loss problem for conventional sensor network systems and will specifically contribute to making initial responses with preserved data and without the high cost of radiation leak accidents at nuclear facilities.

Many studies are undertaken into nuclear power plants (NPPs) in preparation for accidents exceeding design standards. In this paper, we analyze the applicability of various wireless communication technologies as accident countermeasures in different NPP environments. In particular, a commercial wireless communication module (WCM) is investigated by measuring leakage current and packet error rate (PER), which vary depending on the intensity of incident radiation on the module, by testing at a Co-60 gamma-ray irradiation facility. The experimental results show that the WCMs continued to operate after total doses of 940 and 1097 Gy, with PERs of 3.6% and 0.8%, when exposed to irradiation dose rates of 185 and 486 Gy/h, respectively. In short, the lower irradiation dose rate decreased the performance of WCMs more than the higher dose rate. In experiments comparing the two communication protocols of request/response and one-way, the WCMs survived up to 997 and 1177 Gy, with PERs of 2% and 0%, respectively. Since the request/response protocol uses both the transmitter and the receiver, while the one-way protocol uses only the transmitter, then the electronic system on the side of the receiver is more vulnerable to radiation effects. From our experiments, the tested module is expected to be used for design-based accidents (DBAs) of “Category A″ type, and has confirmed the possibility of using wireless communication systems in NPPs.

According to the continuous development of metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) fabrication technology, transistors have naturally become more radiation-tolerant through steadily decreasing gate-oxide thickness, increasing the tunneling probability between gate-oxide and channel. Unfortunately, despite this radiation-hardened property of developed transistors, the field of nuclear power plants (NPPs) requires even higher radiation hardness levels. Particularly, total ionizing dose (TID) of approximately 1 Mrad could be required for readout circuitry under severe accident conditions with 100 Mrad around a reactor in-core required. In harsh radiating environments such as NPPs, sensors such as micro-pocket-fission detectors (MPFD) would be a promising technology to be operated for detecting neutrons in reactor cores. For those sensors, readout circuits should be fundamentally placed close to sensing devices for minimizing signal interferences and white noise. Therefore, radiation hardening ability is necessary for the circuits under high radiation environments. This paper presents various integrated circuit designs for a radiation hardened charge-sensitive amplifier (CSA) by using SiGe 130 nm and Si 180 nm fabrication processes with different channel widths and transistor types of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) and bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS). These circuits were tested under γ–ray environment with Cobalt-60 of high level activity: 490 kCi. The experiment results indicate amplitude degradation of 2.85%–34.3%, fall time increase of 201–1730 ns, as well as a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 0.07–11.6 dB decrease with irradiation dose increase. These results can provide design guidelines for radiation hardening operational amplifiers in terms of transistor sizes and structures.