A novel high-precision single-event transient hardened voltage comparator design

To reduce the impact of the single-event transient (SET) effect on the high-precision comparator, based on the common high-gain pre-amplification stage structure of the comparator, a new radiation hardened by design (RHBD) method, namely, the sensitive node transient detection feedback latch (SNTDFL) technique, is proposed. The hardening technique avoids comparator erroneous output by detecting the sensitive nodes of the high-gain pre-amplification stage. The detection circuit receives the response generated by the high energy particle impacts and feeds the high level back to the sensitive nodes to latch the current comparator state. In this paper, a novel high-precision SET hardened voltage comparator based on this technique is developed. Through detailed circuit principle and simulation analysis, the functional characteristics and the hardening performance of the high-precision hardened comparator are verified. Compared with the unhardened and the TMR technique hardened comparator, the SNTDFL technique hardened comparator effectively avoids the erroneous output caused by the SET effect with less overhead and still has excellent functional characteristics.