Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A 538 (2005) 465–482 Radiation-induced effects on the XAA1.2 ASIC chip for space application Ettore Del Monte a,b,Ã , Luigi Pacciani a , Geiland Porrovecchio a , Paolo Soffitta a , Enrico Costa a , Giuseppe Di Persio a , Marco Feroci a , Marcello Mastropietro c , Ennio Morelli d , Massimo Rapisarda e , Alda Rubini a , Dario Bisello f , Andrea Candelori f , Alexandre Kaminski f , Jeffery Wyss g a Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, CNR, Roma, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, I-00133 Roma, Italy b Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita` di Roma ‘‘Tor Vergata’’, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Roma, Italy c Istituto di Metodologie Inorganiche e dei Plasmi, CNR, Roma, Via Salaria km 29.300, I-00016 Monterotondo Scalo (RM) c.p. 10, Italy d Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, CNR, Bologna, Via P. Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna, Italy e ENEA C.R. Frascati, Via Enrico Fermi 45, I-00044 Frascati (RM), Italy f Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita` di Padova, INFN Sezione di Padova, Via Marzolo 8, I-35100 Padova, Italy g DIMSAT, Universita` di Cassino, Via Di Biasio 43, I-03043 Cassino (FR), Italy Received 23 May 2004; accepted 9 August 2004 Available online 29 September 2004 Abstract The XAA1.2 is a custom ASIC chip for space applications built using a 0:8 mm complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology on epitaxial layer. It has been selected as the front-end electronics chip of the SuperAGILE experiment on board the AGILE space mission, although it is not specifically designed as a radiation hard device. To study the XAA1.2 sensitivity to Single Event Effects and Total Dose Effects we irradiate this chip at the SIRAD facility of the Laboratori Nazionali INFN of Legnaro. In this paper we describe the experimental set-up and the measurements. We then discuss how the results can be scaled to the cosmic rays environment in a low-Earth orbit. r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 13.85.Tp; 85.40.e; 95.55.Ka Keywords: High-Energy Astrophysics; X-rays; Radiation damage; ASIC 1. Introduction The earliest verified failure and damage in satellite-borne experiments due to interaction of ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/nima 0168-9002/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2004.08.110 Ã Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 06 4993 4010; fax: +39 06 2066 0188. E-mail address: delmonte@rm.iasf.cnr.it (E. Del Monte).