Radiation hardening, detection and protection design methods and circuit examples thereof

Radiation hardened circuitry comprising:

• a circuit node separate from both a power rail and a ground rail;
• one or more active transistors coupled to the circuit node;
• one or more passive transistors coupled to the circuit node, wherein each passive transistor is made passive by coupling a gate of the passive transistor to one of a source of the passive transistor or a gate of the passive transistor, and wherein the one or more passive transistors are configured to substantially offset a net radiation photo-current of the active transistors coupled to the circuit node.

A radiation hardened circuit comprising at least a first active transistor connected to a first passive transistor at a first node, the first passive transistor configured to (i) provide no current at the first node in the absence of radiation and (ii) provide a radiation photo-current to substantially counterbalance an active transistor induced radiation photo-current at the first node in the presence of radiation.

A method of radiation hardening comprising:

• coupling a passive transistor between a circuit node and a power rail to substantially offset a net radiation photocurrent of one or more active transistors connected to that circuit node.