Radiation hardened by design techniques to reduce single event transient pulse width based on the physical mechanism

The impact of the source on single event transient (SET) is studied for the balanced two-transistor inverter by a novel simulation structure in a 90 nm twin-well bulk CMOS technology. Due to the significantly distinct mechanism of single event change collection in PMOS and NMOS, the source, which is beneficial to broadening P-hit SET pulse width (W_SET) but reducing N-hit W_SET, plays a different role in SET production. Based on these different source roles, different radiation hardened by design (RHBD) methods are proposed to reduce W_SET for PMOS and NMOS, respectively. The simulation results show that the proposed RHBD methods can remarkably reduce W_SET.     

Gain saturation of a CW-pumped erbium-doped fiber amplifier for nanosecond pulses

We report on the gain saturation property of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier for high peak 100 ns pulses. Under CW pumping conditions, the 980 nm pump power dependence of the gain saturation is precisely measured. Pump power dependence is discussed by assuming that the pulse width is much shorter than the recovery time of the erbium population inversion.     

Design and implementation of micro-power temperature to duty cycle converter using differential temperature sensing

The CMOS based temperature detection circuit has been developed in a standard 180 nm CMOS technology. The proposed temperature sensor senses the temperature in terms of the duty cycle in the temperature range of −30 °C to +70 °C. The circuit is divided into three parts, the sensor core, the subtractor and the pulse width modulator. The sensor core consists of two individual circuits which generates voltages proportional (PTAT) and complementary (CTAT) to the absolute temperature. The mean temperature inaccuracy (°C) of PTAT generator is −0.15 °C to +0.35 °C. Similarly, CTAT generator has mean temperature accuracy of ±1 °C. To increase thermal responsivity, the CTAT voltage is subtracted from the PTAT voltage. The resultant voltage has the thermal responsivity of 6.18 mV/°C with the temperature inaccuracy of ±1.3 °C. A simple pulse width modulator (PWM) has been used to express the temperature in terms of the duty cycle. The measured temperature inaccuracy in the duty cycle is less than ±1.5 °C obtained after performing a single point calibration. The operating voltage of the proposed architecture is 1.80±10% V, with the maximum power consumption of 7.2 μW.     

Chromatic dispersion estimation methods using polynomial fitting in PDM-QPSK or other multilevel-format coherent optical systems

We propose a polynomial fitting algorithm based method for non-data-aided chromatic dispersion (CD) estimation in single carrier (SC) coherent optical systems with arbitrary modulation formats, and compare it with our previously proposed CD estimation method which is also based on the polynomial fitting algorithm but requires special modulation formats thus is a data-aided CD estimation method for systems with PDM-QPSK or other multilevel modulation formats. For the data-aided CD estimation method, an extra chirp-free OOK signal is transmitted. The curve of the average phase at the frequency ± f as a function of the frequency f is measured at the coherent receiver. The accumulated CD is then estimated with a polynomial fitting algorithm. In the simulation of a 50 Gbaud 50%-RZ OOK system through 12.5 × 80 km standard single mode fiber (SSMF), the estimation errors are within ± 50 ps/nm in 20 tests when the launch power is from −5 dBm to −1 dBm. Non-data-aided CD estimation for arbitrary modulation formats is achieved by measuring the differential phase between frequency f ± f_s/2 (f_s is the symbol rate) in digital coherent receivers. The estimation errors are within ± 200 ps/nm, in a 50 Gbaud PDM-QPSK system through 10 × 80 km SSMF with the launch power from −3 dBm to −1 dBm. The estimation accuracy can be potentially improved by averaging multiple results. The data-aided CD estimation method has an inherently bigger estimation range than that of the newly proposed non-data-aided method, while the newly proposed non-data-aided method can tolerate a much larger frequency offset between the transmitter and the local oscillator. These methods are promising for future optical fiber networks with dynamic optical routing and coherent detection.     

Research on the effect of single-event transient of an on-chip linear voltage regulator fabricated on 130 nm commercial CMOS technology

We report single-event transient (SET) responses of an on-chip linear voltage regulator in 130 nm commercial standard CMOS technology by heavy ion experiments at first. Responses can be distinguished by the load current. When the light load current was applied, the negative SET on the output of the regulator larger than 200 mV was not observed, while the positive SETs that are larger than 400 mV and last for about 200 ns were observed. By comparison, when the heavy load current was applied, both positive and negative SETs that are larger than 400 mV and last for several hundred ns were observed. Next, the mechanism behind the phenomenon is analysed and then verified by the post-layout SPICE circuit simulation. It is demonstrated that the input voltage, load current and the load capacitance are key elements in determining the severity of SET. Finally, the most sensitive node is located by analysis and SPICE circuit simulation, which lies in the output of the amplifier inside of the bandgap reference (BGR). This result is a primary consideration in the development of the hardening technique.     

Low threshold melt-processed two-photon organic surface emitting upconversion lasers

Herein, a low threshold, wavelength-tunable, compact, two-photon pumped upconversion laser is presented. The surface emitting lasers are composed of melt-processed 1,4-bis[2-[4-[N,N-di(p-totyl)amino]phenyl]vinyl]benzene (DADSB) as active media and two designed distributed bragg reflectors. The melting fabrication process is very simple, and the lasing threshold is as low as 150 μJ cm^?2 pulse^?1, when pumped by a Ti:sapphire amplifier operating at 800 nm with a 150 fs pulse width. To the best of our knowledge, it is one of the lowest values for two-photon lasers. Lasing from multimode to single-mode oscillation is demonstrated. Tunable single mode oscillation was obtained at wavelength from 514 nm to 523 nm with a spectral width of less than 0.2 nm.     

Investigation on chalcogenide and silica based photonic crystal fibers with circular and octagonal core

In this paper, a novel chalcogenide and silica photonic crystal fiber (PCF) structure is designed with circular air-holes located in the cladding and the various optical properties, namely, dispersion, nonlinearity and group velocity dispersion parameters are compared for two different core structures, namely, circular and octagonal. The objective is to obtain high nonlinearity with dispersion flattened PCF. The prime focus is to obtain high non-linear effects as it plays great role in speed and capacity of optical communications. The proposed chalcogenide octagonal and circular PCF exhibits a dispersion of +77.55 ps/(nm km) and +77.34 ps/(nm km), respectively, whereas, the nonlinearity is in the order of 4506 W⁻¹ km⁻¹ and 4498 W⁻¹ km⁻¹, respectively. Also, the silica octagonal and circular PCF exhibits a dispersion of +19.03 ps/(nm km) and +0.97 ps/(nm km) respectively, whereas the nonlinearity is in the order of 169.41 W⁻¹ km⁻¹ and 182.41 W⁻¹ km⁻¹ respectively.     

On the short-circuit and avalanche ruggedness reliability assessment of SiC MOSFET modules

This paper provides an insight into the operational robustness of commercially available SiC MOSFET power modules, during short-circuit (SC) and unclamped inductive switching (UIS) test environments. A set of five different power modules from three vendors rated from 1.2–1.7 kV and with various current ratings have been evaluated, where the possible failure mechanisms that cause the breakdown of the modules have been addressed. The SC pulse duration of the modules was gradually increased until the failure occurred. A critical short circuit energy in the order of 4.0–8.0 J was observed at a supply voltage of 800 V and a pulse duration of 4.0 μs. At lower supply voltage of 500 V, all modules survived until 10.0 μs. One of the modules, rated at 1.7 kV, survived SC tests at voltages up to 1000 V for a pulse duration of 4 μs, but failed when the supply voltage was increased to 1100 V. Prior to failure, a gate-source voltage drop has been recorded, which is associated with a high G-S leakage current. The main failure mechanism, however, is the thermal runaway which leads the devices into avalanche breakdown mode. During the UIS tests, multiple samples from the three vendors of the power modules failed. The failure of the modules was always caused by the external diode connected in parallel with the MOSFETs. One of the modules from the same vendor which does not have external diode and another module from a different vendor with external diode survived the UIS tests under nominal test conditions.     

A surface profile reconstruction system using sinusoidal phase-modulating interferometry and fiber-optic fringe projection

A fiber-optic sinusoidal phase modulating (SPM) interferometer for surface profile reconstruction is presented. Sinusoidal phase modulation is created by modulating the drive voltage of the piezoelectric transducer. The surface profile is constructed basing on fringe projection. Fringe patterns are vulnerable to external disturbances such as temperature fluctuation and mechanical vibration, which cause phase drift and decrease measuring accuracy. We build a closed-loop feedback phase compensation system, the bias value of external disturbances superimposed on fringe patterns can be reduced to about 50 mrad, and the phase stability for interference fringes is less than 5.76 mrad. By measuring the surface profile of a paper plate for two times, the repeatability is estimated to be about 11 nm, and is equivalent to be about λ/69. For a plane with 100 × 100 points, a single measurement takes less than 140 ms, and the feasibility for real-time profile measurement with high accuracy has been verified.     

Control and probe of population inversion using nanosecond pulse trains in an erbium-doped fiber amplifier

We report the control of population inversion in a continuously pumped fiber amplifier using pulse trains with a finite number of pulses. We first measured the pulse interval dependence of the amplifier gain, which indicated that the gain was in the quasi-continuous condition for an interval of less than 1 μs and in the single-shot condition for an interval of approximately 1 ms. For population control, the population change was probed using pulse trains that induced a population change through a modified pump–probe method. We observed that a change in the population inversion was not determined by the number of pulse but by the number of total input photons. Temporal profiles of the population inversion were analyzed using a model derived for single pulse amplification.     

High power 4H–SiC pin diodes (10 kV class) with record high carrier lifetime

The hole lifetime τ_p in the n-base and isothermal (pulse) current–voltage characteristics have been measured in 4H–SiC diodes with a 10 kV blocking voltage (100 μm base width). The τ_p value found from open circuit voltage decay (OCVD) measurements is 3.7 μs at room temperature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the above value of τ_p is the highest reported for 4H–SiC. The forward voltage drops V_F are 3.44 V at current density j = 100 A/cm² and 5.45 V at j = 1000 A/cm². A very deep modulation of the blocking base by injected non-equilibrium carriers has been demonstrated. Calculations in term of a simple semi-analytical model describe well the experimental results obtained.     

The influence of microwave pulse width on the thermal burnout effect of a PIN diode limiting-amplifying system

This paper analyzes the influence of the microwave pulse width on the thermal burnout effect of a PIN diode limiting-amplifying system. Based on theoretical analyses and simulation, the relationship of the burnout effect on a PIN diode limiter and a PIN diode limiting-amplifying system is obtained first. By adopting an absorption efficiency factor, the theoretical model of the relationship between the microwave pulse width and the burnout power threshold for the PIN diode limiting-amplifying system is obtained. The proposed theoretical formulas can be determined by using at least two sets of simulation or measurement results to fit the constant coefficients, which can greatly reduce the simulation or experimental costs. The results obtained by the theoretical formulas are in good agreement with the numerical simulation results obtained by our self-designed device–circuit joint simulator, which verifies the correction of the theoretical analyses and modeling. The available microwave pulse width range for the proposed theoretical formulas is from 10 ns to 10 μs. In consideration of the potential threat of microwave pulses, the system-level study results obtained in this paper will be helpful for the design of the radio frequency receivers.     

Ultra-flattened chromatic dispersion and highly nonlinear photonic crystal fibers with ultralow confinement loss employing hybrid cladding

In this paper, two new types of dispersion-flattened photonic crystal fibers (DF-PCFs) with highly nonlinear and ultralow confinement loss are proposed. These new PCF structures adopt hybrid cladding with different air-holes diameters, pitches and air-holes arranged fashions. In order to analyze the proposed PCFs, the full-vector finite element method with anisotropic perfectly matched layers has been used. Results show that the ultra-flattened dispersion of 0.931 ps/(nm km) (DF-PCF1) and 1.533 ps/(nm km) (DF-PCF2) can be achieved in the wavelength range from 1.3 to 1.6 μm with confinement losses lower than 0.001 dB/km in the same wavelength range. Meanwhile, the nonlinear coefficients of our proposed PCFs are greater than 23.83 W⁻¹ km⁻¹ (DF-PCF1) and 29.65 W⁻¹ km⁻¹ (DF-PCF2) at the wavelength of 1.55 μm, and two near-zero dispersion values of 0.328 ps/(nm km) (DF-PCF1) and −0.015 ps/(nm km) (DF-PCF2) can also be obtained at the same wavelength. Furthermore, the influence of manufacturing imperfections of parameters on dispersion and nonlinearity is discussed to verify the robustness of our design.     

Increased doping depth of Al in wet-chemical laser doping of 4H-SiC by expanding laser pulse

Al is doped into 4H-SiC by irradiating pulsed KrF excimer laser to 4H-SiC immersed in AlCl₃ aqueous solution. Impact on doping depth of the use of expanded laser-pulse width is investigated. Expanded laser pulse is produced by splitting and recombining the laser beam with mirrors. The laser pulse width was expanded from its original width of 55–100 ns, while the peak power of the expanded pulse is as half as that of the original pulse under the same laser fluence. Multiple shots of the expanded laser pulses increased the doping depth at the Al concentration of 1×10¹⁶ /cm³ to 100 nm from 30 nm of the single shot of the original short, high-peak power laser. The increased doping depth could be due to enhanced diffusion by extra vacancies generated by the repeated laser irradiations. Due to the smaller laser peak power, the expanded pulse laser can suppress damage generation under multiple laser shots and, as a result, leakage current of the pn junction diode is kept low.     

The generation of dissipative solitons in an all-fiber passively mode-locked laser based on semiconduct type of carbon nanotubes absorber

We report theoretically and experimentally on the formation and compensation of dissipative soliton (DS) in an all-normal dispersion fiber laser mode locked with semiconductor type of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) absorber fabricated by vertical evaporation method. The pulses with bandwidth of 2.2 nm and duration of 11.7 ps are obtained at 1051 nm. The DS is linearly chirped and can be compressed to 1.8 ps by a grating pair. By this method the carbon nanotubes absorbers is can be mass produced cost effectively and easier to control the absorber parameters, e.g. initial transmission of the absorber, therefore this method is more suitable to be industrialized.     

A mixed-signal pulse width modulator for portable SMPS applications

This paper presents a design for a mixed-signal pulse width modulator (MSPWM) integrated circuit that targets the digital control of high-frequency switched-mode DC–DC power supplies (SMPS). Previous designs consider digital pulse width modulators (DPWM) implementations that encounter important design issues, such as power consumption, non-linearity, layout dependency, trimming capability and temperature dependency. This work presents effective solutions, suitable for large-scale production of ICs, since it combines high-precision, high-linearity and temperature-independent standard analog circuits, which are commonly offered by the semiconductor industry, with the simplicity and reuse of digital PID compensation as input. The 8-bit prototype designed for a 0.18-μm CMOS process operates at switching frequency of 2 MHz, draws only 96.25 μA from a 1.8 V supply and takes 0.029 mm², including the non-overlapping control logic of SMPS power devices.     

Low temperature fabricated conductive lines on flexible substrate by inkjet printing

The optimal conditions of inkjet-printed nano-silver suspension and silver nitrate solution for fabricating continuous narrow conductive lines on a polyimide substrate are investigated by varying the driving pulse and droplet overlap. The dimensionless Weber number and Reynolds number are used to evaluate the droplet size after impact. It was found that the presence of a suspension of nanoparticles increases droplet diameter. With appropriate droplet overlap and driving pulse conditions, continuous lines of AgNO₃ with 24.3 μm in width and nano-silver suspension with 33 μm in width were fabricated. In addition, the effects of driving pulse voltage and droplet coverage on the bulging of as-printed conductive lines are also examined.     

A single mode ultra flat high negative residual dispersion compensating photonic crystal fiber

In this paper, a single mode photonic crystal fiber based on hexagonal architecture is numerically demonstrated for the purpose of residual dispersion compensation in the wavelength range of 980–1580 nm. The designed fiber offers ultraflattened negative dispersion in the near-infrared to most widely used S to L wavelength bands and average dispersion of about −138 ps/(nm km) with an absolute dispersion variation of 12 ps/(nm km). Besides, the proposed fiber successfully operates as a single mode in the entire band of interest. Moreover, to check the dispersion accuracy, sensitivity of the fiber dispersion properties to a ±1–5% variation in the optimum parameters is studied for practical conditions.     

A highly nonlinear photonic quasi-crystal fiber with low confinement loss and flattened dispersion

We proposed a novel photonic quasi-crystal fiber with near-zero flattened dispersion, highly nonlinear coefficient, and low confinement loss by using the dual concentric core structure. By optimizing the structure parameter, the proposed photonic quasi-crystal fiber can achieve a nonlinear coefficient larger than 33 W⁻¹ km⁻¹ and near-zero flatten dispersion of 0 ± 3.4 ps/nm/km with a near-zero dispersion slope of 8.5 × 10⁻³ ps/nm²/km at the wavelength of 1550 nm. Near-zero flattened dispersion and low confinement loss in the ultralow order of 10⁻⁷ dB/m are simultaneously obtained in the wavelength range from 1373 to 1627 nm. Furthermore, two zero dispersion wavelengths can be achieved in a wide wavelength ranger from 1373 to 1725 nm. From the point of view of practical fabrication, the influence of deviation of each air hole diameter within 3% of imperfections on dispersion, nonlinearity, and is discussed to verify the robustness of our design.