0.25μm radiation tolerant CMOS technology

The MOS devices of the standard 0.25mum CMOS technology have been characterized for their immunity against ionizing radiation. While the shift of the threshold voltage is acceptable for total doses in the range of several KGy, the leakage of irradiated NMOST needed to be improved through process modification. Additional processing steps to optimize the lateral isolation of the transistors yielded devices with total dose immunity up to 4KGy. No special layout rules for the transistors are required which eliminates the need for a radiation tolerant specific design library and makes the radiation tolerant technology mask compatible with the standard process.