A Framework for Determining System-Level SEE Vulnerabilities in Wireless RF Receivers

Space-borne wireless communications systems have become ubiquitous with the advent of commercial space flight. To support robust wireless data transmission in Earth-orbiting and deep-space applications, a framework has been developed for radio frequency (RF) designers and radiation-effects engineers to identify, model, visualize, and test single-event effects (SEEs) in wireless receivers. Digital RF communications receivers are introduced, including the constellation diagram, an important visualization tool. Then, the generation of single-event transients (SETs) is presented in multiple layers, starting from transistors, building to SETs at the outputs of each circuit block, and culminating in the response of the full receiver system. Circuit blocks addressed in this work include a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a downconversion mixer, and a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). Analytical theory and numerical simulation are synthesized, accompanied by pulsed-laser SEE testing, to give an understanding of how deposited charges in constituent transistors convert to SETs and single-event upsets (SEUs). As an example case, a SiGe-BiCMOS direct-conversion receiver carrying 100-Mbaud quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) at the X-band (8–12 GHz) is characterized using pulsed-laser SEE testing. This manuscript provides a useful review and analytical template that enable future designers and radiation-effects engineers to: 1) model SET propagation in a wireless receiver a priori, without testing full systems; 2) identify the SEE mechanisms present in a wireless receiver with knowledge of the circuit components present; and 3) determine sensitive transistors and circuits to develop informed test plans for worst case predictions.