The radiation qualification of a switch capacitor array controller for use in ATLAS

A switch capacitor array controller for use in the ATLAS detector was radiation qualified. Five prototypes of the controller were examined: Xilinx XC4036XLA and XC2S150 field programmable gate arrays, an Altera EPF10K50 complex programmable logic device, a radiation-hardened DMILL and a deep sub-micron application-specific integrated circuit. All of the devices, except for the XC4036XLA device, were irradiated with x-rays to test for total ionizing dose effects. The XC2S150 and EPF10K50 devices showed increases in power supply current at average total ionizing doses of (331 ± 29) Gy(SiO2) and (832 ± 90) Gy(SiO₂), respectively. The application specific integrated circuit devices showed no increases in power supply current when irradiated to doses anticipated during ATLAS operation.; The XC4036XLA had a single-event upset saturation cross-section value of (1.3 ± 0.2) × 10−10 cm2/device for the user defined circuit and (26 ± 1) × 10−10 cm2/device for the configuration switches. The device exhibited a threshold energy of (22 ± 1) MeV for proton-induced single-event upsets. It was estimated that if the XC4036XLA was used in ATLAS, one of the devices in the electro-magnetic barrel calorimeter would require a reconfiguration every 12 minutes on average. The DSM device had a single-event upset saturation cross-section of (5 ± 1) × 10−13 cm 2/device and a single-event upset threshold energy of (44 ± 24) MeV for upsets that could not be corrected. It was estimated that one uncorrectable upset would occur, on average, every 65 device·days of operation in ATLAS. One single-event latch-up was observed when the XC40346XLA was irradiated with 105 MeV protons. It was estimated, at the 95% confidence level, that the mean time between proton-induced latch-ups for the XC4036XLA in ATLAS would be between 388 device yr and 7.87 × 105 device·yr. No permanent single-event effects were observed in the application specific integrated circuits.