Radiation effects on XFET voltage references

Abstract

XFET references make up a new kind of voltage references different from the popular band-gap or buried Zener devices. These references are built by means of a reference cell consisting of a couple of p-channel junction field effect transistors with different pinch-off voltage values and an operational amplifier for the purpose of improving the output characteristics of the whole device. An irradiation in a mixed gamma and neutron environment was performed at the Portuguese Research Reactor for a complete characterization of the devices. Some of the parameters were measured during the irradiation while the rest of them were obtained once the samples were removed from the neutron facility. Experimental results show that some references belonging to this class are interesting candidates for a design of radiation-tolerant electronic systems based on COTS devices.