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

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.