Application of hardness-by-design methodology to radiation-tolerant ASIC technologies

Radiation-hard ASIC design is enabled by the trend in commercial microelect ronics toward increased radiation hardness, demonstrated here with new radi ation results on a 0.25-mum commercial process utilizing shallow trench iso lation. A design comparison is made between creating ASICs targeting a trad itional rad-hard foundry, which may be more than two generations behind com mercial foundries, applying hardness-by-design methodology at a commercial foundry, and directly targeting a commercial foundry using commercial desig n practices.