High-temperature silicon-on-insulator electronics for space nuclear power systems: requirements and feasibility

The authors performed a study to determine whether silicon very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSICs) can survive the high temperature (up to 300 degrees C) and total-dose radiation environments (up to 10 Mrad over a 7-10-y system life) projected for a very-high power space nuclear reactor platform. It is shown that circuits built on bulk epitaxial silicon cannot meet the temperature requirement because of excessive junction leakage currents. However, circuits built on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) material can meet both the radiation and temperature requirements. It is also found that the temperature dependence of the threshold voltage of the SOI transistors is less than that of bulk transistors. Survivability of high-temperature SOI VLSICs in space, including immunity to transient and single-event upset, is also addressed.< >