ABSTRACT
Voltage references are also extensively used in a wide variety of circuits including regulators, data converters, and power supply supervisory circuits. This chapter reviews the issues associated with operating reference circuits under four types of extreme environment (EE) conditions: over an extremely wide temperature range, at extremely low temperatures, at extremely high temperatures, and under radiation exposure. It analyzes the circuit and identify the design parameters that are the major contributors in establishing circuit’s performance and discusses the behavior of the circuit is examined under the stated EE conditions. Since the base–emitter voltage is a complex function of temperature, the output of the first-order bandgap reference circuit will have some inherent temperature drift. Single event transients (SET) response of several circuits has been investigated through a variety of beam experiments and device/circuit simulations. Radiation hardened by design techniques can be employed at the device or circuit level to mitigate SET effects.
