The Influence of Ionizing Radiation on the Electromagnetic Immunity of a Bandgap Reference
Nikolaus Juch, Alicja Malgorzata Michalowska-Forsyth, Daniel Kircher, Bernd Deutschmann · 2025
During operation, electronic systems are often exposed to a wide range of external disturbances, potentially including electromagnetic interference (EMI) and ionizing radiation. Evaluating the electromagnetic immunity of integrated circuits (ICs) is well established but usually performed under nominal operating conditions only. It is important to assess combined effects during system evaluation to reflect a circuit’s performance under realistic environmental conditions. This study investigates the combined effects of electromagnetic interference and ionizing radiation on a custom voltage reference circuit fabricated in a commercial 180 nm CMOS process. Direct power injection measurements were conducted on an untreated sample and after exposing it to ionizing radiation with low-energy X-rays up to a total dose of 25 Mrad. The offset induced by electromagnetic interference was measured over a frequency range of 1 MHz to 1 GHz. A detailed analysis of the dose-related changes in immunity to electromagnetic interference is presented in the form of measured results and initial simulation examples.