Radiation tolerance tests of SRAM-based FPGAs for the potential usage in the readout electronics for the LHCb experiment

This paper describes radiation studies of a SRAM-based FPGAas a central component for a upgrade of the LHCb Outer Trackerfront-end electronics to a readout frequency of 40 MHz. Two ArriaGX FPGAs were irradiated with 20 MeV protons to radiation doses ofup to 7 Mrad. During and between the irradiation periods thedifferent FPGA currents, the package temperature, the firmware errorrate, the PLL stability, and the stability of a 32 channel TDCimplemented on the FPGA were monitored. Results on the radiationtolerance of the FPGA and the measured firmware error rates will bepresented. The Arria GX FPGA fulfills the radiation tolerancerequired for the LHCb upgrade (30 krad) and an expected firmwareerror rate of roughly 10−6 Hz makes the chip a possiblecomponent for the upgraded front-end electronics.