A wide temperature, radiation tolerant, CMOS-compatible precision voltage reference for extreme radiation environment instrumentation systems

Many design techniques have been incorporated into modern CMOS design practices to improve radiation tolerance of integrated circuits. Annular-gate NMOS structures have been proven to be significantly more radiation tolerant than the standard, straight-gate variety. Many circuits can be designed using the annular-gate NMOS and the inherently radiation tolerant PMOS. Bandgap reference circuits, however, typically require p-n junction diodes. These p-n junction diodes are the dominating factor in radiation degradation in bandgap reference circuits. This paper proposes a different approach to bandgap reference design to alleviate the radiation susceptibility presented by the p-n junction diodes.