Total Ionizing Dose Characterization of a Prototype Floating Gate MOSFET Dosimeter for Space Applications

A new dosimeter for total ionizing dose that is based on a floating gate MOSFET is presented. The chip incorporates a reference standard MOSFET for temperature compensation and front-end electronics to provide manageable output signals. The floating gate is automatically recharged through an included charge pump circuitry, thus its operating range is spread without affecting the sensitivity. Two different sensitivity configurations are included in the same chip, so the dosimeter can be used under different radiation environments. An initial characterization has been carried out in order to evaluate its suitability for space missions. The results show that the proposed floating gate radiation dosimeter is adequate for space missions with levels of total ionizing dose up to at least 10 krad(Si).