Single Event Effect Characteristics Analysis of Typical Circuit Elements in Spacecraft Power Systems

Single event effect occurs when a single energetic particle penetrates sensitive nodes and deposits enough charge by ionization in semiconductor devices. It has become a major reliability concern for spaceflight. Single event effect characteristics analysis methods based on simulation are presented for typical circuit elements in spacecraft power systems. The failure mechanism and impact factors of single event burnout in trench power MOSFETs are investigated through numerical simulation. The broadening, quenching and capture of single event transients in combinational logics are analyzed by circuit simulation based on a coupled single event transient injection method. A behavioral modeling is introduced to predict single event effect sensitivity of the parallel to serial conversion circuit. The results show that ion-induced holes can spread efficiently to turn on the parasitic bipolar junction transistor and result in stronger carrier multiplication when the ion strikes at the center of the gate region in trench power MOSFETs. Increasing the depth of P⁺ plugs, decreasing the doping concentration of source regions and using lower drain bias voltages can mitigate single event burnout susceptibility. Using the same load capacitance for each stage inverter and selecting a suitable gate-width ratio are recommended to prevent single event transient broadening in inverter chains. Moreover, the reset pin of D flip-flops in the parallel to serial conversion circuit should be hardened by design according to the behavioral modeling results.