Radiation Effect Mitigation
Edited by David Barth, 7 December 2008
from page 78 of the September 29, 2008 issue of Aviation Week & Space
Technology, by David Hughes.
Radiation Effect Mitigation at the time of this writing was as follows:
Mitigating the effects of radiation is accomplished primarily by modifying transistor topology. The
metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (Mosfet) is the basic building block of CMOS technology.
A commercial, unhardened transistor consists of an inline configuration of the source, gate, and drain
components which make the transistor susceptible to ionizing radiation.
Radiation hardening by design (RHBD) is accomplished by building three concentric shells for each transistor. The
inner shell contains the
drain, the middle shell is the gate, and the outer shell that encompasses the two inner shells is the source.
This design hardens the transistor against the effects of all but the most intense ionizing radiation.