This paper presents a 2 GHz low noise amplifier (LNA) implemented in 180 nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology designed for cryogenic temperatures as well as its measurement results at both room temperature and 77 K. A modified approach to classical LNA design has been adopted. The matching of the LNA has been performed by external discrete components such that S₁₁ and S₂₂ of the LNA between 2.025 and 2.12 GHz (designated for space communications) are below -10 dB at both 77 K and 297 K. At 77 K, the designed LNA achieves 18 dB gain, 35.4 K noise temperature, and +3 dBm IIP3. IIP3 performance of the LNA at cryogenic temperatures has been analyzed in particular, and the linearity improvement by using the proposed approach has been demonstrated. Moreover, the designed LNA was irradiated with 650 krad gamma radiation. Even though the LNA is not specifically radiation-hardened, no degradation on its performance has been observed.

This study demonstrates a first example of silver nanowire coated wool fibers for wearable electronic applications. Silver nanowires were synthesized according to the polyol method and then drop casted on knitted wool fabrics. Electronic properties of the knitted samples were investigated under cyclic bending conditions. Conductive fabrics were isolated with a dielectric material and used as capacitance to measure respiration and finger motions. In addition, the same capacitor was employed as a pressure sensor and touch-based sensor for lighting up an LED. This study demonstrates that silver nanowire coated knitted wool fabrics can be used in electronic textiles not only as a flexible electrode but also as a capacitor for different applications.

This letter presents the measurement results of a 180-nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) X-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) at both 77 and 300 K. The designed LNA provides S₁₁ and S₂₂ below -10 dB at both temperatures within 6.4-7.4 GHz band. At 300 K, the voltage gain of the designed LNA is higher than 12.5 dB, and it provides an average noise temperature of 275 K, as well as -1 dBm IIP3. At 77 K, the LNA has approximately an 18-dB voltage gain, 78-K noise figure (NF), and -3 dBm IIP3. The presented work is the first implemented X-band cryogenic CMOS LNA in the literature.

This paper presents a modeling approach to simulate the impact of total ionizing dose (TID) degradation on low-power analog and mixed-signal circuits. The modeling approach has been performed on 180-nm n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (n-MOSFETs). The effects of the finger number, channel geometry, and biasing voltages have been tested during irradiation experiments. All Berkeley short-channel insulated gate field-effect transistor model (BSIM) parameters relevant to the transistor properties affected by TID have been modified in an algorithmic flow to correctly estimate the sub-threshold leakage current for a given dose level. The maximum error of the model developed is below 8%. A case study considering a five-stage ring oscillator is simulated with the generated model to show that the power consumption of the circuit increases and the oscillation frequency decreases around by 14%.

This paper discusses the impact of total ionizing dose (TID) on basic amplifier stages that are biased right above the device threshold voltages. Existing TID degradation-aware transistor models have been leveraged in circuit simulations. The simulation methodology is developed to account for operating currents comparable to TID-induced leakage currents. It is shown that depending on the TID level, a DC input voltage level can be found for which performance characteristics such as the voltage gain can be retained to be similar in pre-and post-irradiation conditions.