REDUNDANT COMPARATOR DESIGN FOR IMPROVED OFFSET VOLTAGE AND SINGLE EVENT EFFECTS HARDNESS
Patent №
US 6,563,347
Granted
2003-05-13
Filed 2001
Owner
—
Lab
—
AI components
1
hardware
Assignment
None on record
Dataset
AIPD
2023_r1 edition
Application
09973106
An analog comparator architecture has improved immunity to single event effects and variations in input offset voltage. A conventional single analog comparator-based circuit is replaced with plural comparators, driving a “majority vote” logic block. The effective input offset voltage of the multi-comparator design is the middle one of the individual comparators' input offset voltages. A single event upset on any comparator may momentarily perturb its output into the incorrect state; however, the output of the majority voting logic block will remain in the correct state, as only one comparator is upset. In addition, where a heavy ion strike on any comparator's bias current source causes a momentary loss of bias current, this upsets only one comparator, so that the output of the voting logic block is unaffected.