Investigation of Single-Event Burnout in Laterally-Diffused Metal-Oxide Semiconductor for Power Modulation Circuits

With power modulation circuits increasingly deployed from terrestrial and marine environments to space, Laterally-Diffused Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (LDMOS) devices, which serve as key components in these circuits, especially when employed as switches, are particularly susceptible to single-event burnout (SEB). To investigate the SEB effects of N-channel LDMOS (nLDMOS) and P-channel LDMOS (pLDMOS) at the circuit-integration level, this letter presents two types of complementary single-event experiments: (i) pulsed-laser testing of complementary LDMOS transistors used as switches in the power modulation circuit, and (ii) heavy-ion testing of an nLDMOS-and pLDMOS-integrated power modulation circuit. The results confirm that pLDMOS exhibits stronger SEB resistance than nLDMOS. This study offers valuable insights for designing radiation-hardened power modulation circuits with integrated LDMOS devices in future aerospace applications.