Design of radiation-tolerant digital-to-analog converter and investigation on analog single event transient effects

A circuit design methodology for space applications is presented with an 8-bit resistive digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with XY addressing mode and BiCMOS buffer designed in IHP’s 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology (SG13S). The radiation tolerance of the implemented DAC is evaluated by circuit-level simulations particularly analyzing the radiation sensitivity of the DAC to analog single-event transients (ASETs). Radiation mitigation techniques are addressed. The total current consumption with a 3.3 V supply is 0.54 mA at a 1 MHz sampling frequency.