A Starry Byte -- proton beam measurements of single event upsets and other radiation effects in ABCStar ASIC Versions 0 and 1 for the ITk strip tracker

TL;DR

This paper reports on proton beam tests of ABCStar ASICs to measure single event upsets and radiation effects, validating design protections like TMR for use in high-radiation environments such as the ATLAS ITk strip tracker.

Contribution

It provides the first proton beam measurement of SEU cross-sections for ABCStar ASICs, confirming the effectiveness of radiation mitigation techniques.

Findings

SEU cross-section measured at 480 MeV proton beam

Design protections like TMR effectively reduce SEU rates

Data supports the suitability of ABCStar for high-radiation environments

Abstract

Single Event Effects (SEEs) - predominately bit-flips in electronics caused by particle interactions - are a major concern for ASICs operated in high radiation environments such as ABCStar ASICs, which are designed to be used in the future ATLAS ITk strip tracker. The chip design is therefore optimised to protect it from SEEs by implementing triplication techniques such as Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR). In order to verify the radiation protection mechanisms of the chip design, the cross-section for Single Event Upsets (SEUs), a particular class of SEEs, is measured by exposing the chip to high-intensity particle beams while monitoring it for observed SEUs. This study presents the setup, the performed measurements, and the results from SEU tests performed using the latest version of the ABCStar ASIC (ABCStar V1) using a 480 MeV proton beam.