Differential Charge Cancellation (DCC) Layout as an RHBD Technique for Bulk CMOS Differential Circuit Design

Abstract

A novel RHBD technique utilizing charge sharing to mitigate single-event voltage transients in differential circuits is demonstrated experimentally. Differential charge cancellation (DCC) layout leverages the inherent common-mode rejection of differential circuits to mitigate voltage transients induced by ion strikes. A simple layout variation transforms normally single-ended error signals into common-mode signals that are mitigated by the differential signal path. This layout change maintains the matching achieved via a standard common-centroid layout but incurs negligible area penalty.