Proton radiation response of monolithic millimeter-wave transceiver building blocks implemented in 200 GHz SiGe technology

Abstract

This paper presents the first experimental results on the effects of 63.3 MeV proton irradiation on 60 GHz monolithic point-to-point broadband space data link transceiver building blocks implemented in a 200 GHz SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology. A SiGe low-noise amplifier and a SiGe voltage-controlled oscillator were each irradiated to proton fluences of 5.0 × 1013 p/cm2. The device and circuit level performance degradation associated with these extreme proton fluences is found to be minimal, suggesting that such SiGe HBT transceivers should be robust from a proton tolerance perspective for space applications, without intentional hardening at either the device or circuit level.