pith. sign in

arxiv: 2605.31206 · v1 · pith:VHWVDDEYnew · submitted 2026-05-29 · ❄️ cond-mat.mtrl-sci · cond-mat.other

In-situ operation of amorphous circuits under heavy-ion irradiation

Xuanzhe Sha , Shun Liao , Xiaoxi Li , Chengyuan Li , Jianli Liu , Yu Pan , Wenhai Wang , Yu Ye
show 5 more authors
Chengxin Zhao Liyi Li Hanwen Wang Zheng Vitto Han Jianming Lu
This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-06-28 21:53 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification ❄️ cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.other
keywords amorphous semiconductorsheavy-ion irradiationradiation tolerancethin-film circuitsdigital electronicsin-situ testingradiation-hardened electronicstantalum ions
0
0 comments X

The pith

Amorphous thin-film semiconductor circuits maintain digital function under heavy-ion irradiation.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper shows that a timing circuit built from amorphous thin-film semiconductors at the 100-transistor scale continues to produce a stable 'Hello World' ASCII output sequence while exposed to tantalum heavy ions. The test ran under powered conditions at a flux of 2.5 x 10^3 ions per square centimeter per second and reached a total fluence of 1 x 10^6 ions per square centimeter without loss of operation. This provides a system-level demonstration of radiation tolerance rather than isolated device measurements. If the result holds, amorphous materials become a viable base for digital electronics in environments where silicon circuits would fail. The work focuses on in-situ operation to reflect real deployment conditions.

Core claim

A timing circuit based on amorphous thin-film semiconductors at the 100-transistor scale maintains stable digital operation, shown by continuous 'Hello World' ASCII output, during powered exposure to tantalum heavy-ion irradiation at 2.5 x 10^3 ions cm^-2 s^-1 up to a total fluence of 1 x 10^6 ions cm^-2.

What carries the argument

The in-situ powered heavy-ion irradiation test applied to the amorphous thin-film semiconductor timing circuit, which evaluates system-level tolerance during active function rather than after exposure.

Load-bearing premise

The assumption that uninterrupted output of a repeating ASCII string during irradiation proves the circuit experiences no meaningful errors or degradation.

What would settle it

Any recorded deviation, error, or halt in the 'Hello World' output sequence before the total fluence of 1 x 10^6 ions cm^-2 is reached.

read the original abstract

Radiation-hardened electronics using semiconductors beyond silicon are essential for computation and control in extreme environments. Yet complex digital circuits based on such material platforms operating in situ under heavy-ion irradiation remain largely unexplored. Here, we show a timing circuit based on amorphous thin-film semiconductors at the 100-transistor scale, and demonstrate its robust operation through a functional "Hello World" ASCII output sequence. Beyond static device characterization, we evaluate the circuit under powered heavy-ion irradiation using tantalum ions, providing an operationally relevant assessment of radiation tolerance at the system level. Under a high particle flux of 2.5 x 10^3 ions cm^-2 s^-1, the circuit maintains stable operation during the irradiation test, achieving a total fluence of 1 x 10^6 ions cm^-2, establishing a milestone of prolonged powered digital operation under extreme conditions. Our work expands the design space of radiation-tolerant electronics, highlighting amorphous semiconductors as a promising foundation for digital circuits deployed in harsh environments.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

2 major / 1 minor

Summary. The manuscript reports an experimental demonstration of a 100-transistor timing circuit fabricated from amorphous thin-film semiconductors, showing its powered operation under tantalum heavy-ion irradiation via continuous production of a repeating 'Hello World' ASCII sequence. The test used a flux of 2.5 × 10^3 ions cm^{-2} s^{-1} and reached a total fluence of 1 × 10^6 ions cm^{-2}, presented as evidence of system-level radiation tolerance beyond static device characterization.

Significance. If supported by quantitative error analysis and controls, the result would establish a benchmark for in-situ digital operation of amorphous-semiconductor circuits under heavy-ion flux, expanding the materials options for radiation-tolerant electronics in extreme environments such as space or nuclear applications.

major comments (2)
  1. [Abstract] Abstract: the assertion that the circuit 'maintains stable operation' to 1 × 10^6 ions cm^{-2} is supported only by uninterrupted 'Hello World' ASCII output; no bit-error rates, timing jitter, error histograms, or post-fluence I-V/timing re-characterization are reported, leaving the degree of tolerance unquantified.
  2. [Results] The irradiation-test description provides no details on real-time monitoring methods, control experiments, or how 'stable operation' was verified, making it impossible to assess whether single-event upsets or gradual degradation occurred undetected.
minor comments (1)
  1. [Abstract] The abstract would be strengthened by a brief statement of the quantitative criteria used to define 'stable operation'.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

2 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for their thoughtful review and constructive comments on our manuscript. We address each major comment point by point below, providing clarifications and indicating revisions where the manuscript will be updated to strengthen the presentation of our experimental results.

read point-by-point responses

  1. Referee: [Abstract] Abstract: the assertion that the circuit 'maintains stable operation' to 1 × 10^6 ions cm^{-2} is supported only by uninterrupted 'Hello World' ASCII output; no bit-error rates, timing jitter, error histograms, or post-fluence I-V/timing re-characterization are reported, leaving the degree of tolerance unquantified.

    Authors: The uninterrupted 'Hello World' ASCII sequence constitutes a direct, system-level functional demonstration that the timing circuit continued to execute its programmed output task without catastrophic failure or loss of digital functionality throughout the irradiation. This approach aligns with the manuscript's emphasis on in-situ powered operation rather than exhaustive device-level characterization. We agree that the degree of tolerance remains unquantified in terms of error rates or jitter, and we will revise the abstract to qualify the claim of 'stable operation' as referring to continuous functional output without interruption, while noting the absence of bit-error quantification as a limitation of the current study. revision: yes

  2. Referee: [Results] The irradiation-test description provides no details on real-time monitoring methods, control experiments, or how 'stable operation' was verified, making it impossible to assess whether single-event upsets or gradual degradation occurred undetected.

    Authors: We will expand the Results section to describe the real-time monitoring setup, which consisted of continuous capture of the serial ASCII output via an external interface to a data-logging system, with the sequence checked for continuity and correctness at regular intervals. Baseline control experiments were performed prior to irradiation to confirm nominal circuit behavior. 'Stable operation' was defined and verified by the absence of any sequence interruptions, corruptions, or timing anomalies over the full test duration. We acknowledge that this verification is functional rather than based on internal node probing, and the revised text will explicitly state these methods and limitations to allow readers to assess the possibility of undetected effects. revision: yes

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No circularity: experimental demonstration with no derivation chain

full rationale

The paper reports an experimental test of a 100-transistor amorphous circuit under heavy-ion irradiation, claiming stable operation based on continued 'Hello World' ASCII output to a fluence of 1e6 ions cm^-2. No equations, fitted parameters, predictions, or derivation steps are present in the provided text. The central claim is a direct observational result rather than any reduction of an output to its inputs by construction. No self-citations, ansatzes, or uniqueness theorems are invoked in a load-bearing way. This matches the default case of a self-contained experimental report with score 0.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 2 axioms · 0 invented entities

The claim rests on standard assumptions in semiconductor device fabrication and radiation-effects testing rather than new theoretical constructs.

axioms (2)
  • domain assumption Amorphous thin-film semiconductors can be patterned into functional digital circuits at the 100-transistor scale.
    Invoked by the construction and operation of the timing circuit.
  • domain assumption Tantalum ion irradiation at the stated flux and fluence is a relevant proxy for extreme radiation environments.
    Used to interpret the test as operationally relevant.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.1-grok · 5741 in / 1246 out tokens · 22742 ms · 2026-06-28T21:53:32.757616+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

46 extracted references

  1. [1]

    M., Leroux, P

    Prinzie, J., Simanjuntak, F. M., Leroux, P . & Prodromakis, T. Low-power electronic technologies for harsh radiation envi- ronments. Nature Electronics4, 243–253 (2021)

    2021

  2. [2]

    Vogl, T. et al. Radiation tolerance of two-dimensional material- based devices for space applications. Nature communications 10, 1202 (2019)

    2019

  3. [3]

    Baba, T. et al. Radiation-induced degradation of silicon carbide MOSFETs–a review. Materials Science and Engineering: B300, 117096 (2024)

    2024

  4. [4]

    Barnaby, H. J. Total-ionizing-dose effects in modern CMOS technologies. IEEE transactions on nuclear science53, 3103– 3121 (2006)

    2006

  5. [5]

    Schwank, J. R. et al. Radiation effects in MOS oxides. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science55, 1833–1853 (2008)

    2008

  6. [6]

    Displacement damage effects in irradiated semiconductor devices

    Srour, J., & Palko, J. Displacement damage effects in irradiated semiconductor devices. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science 60, 1740–1766 (2013)

    2013

  7. [7]

    & Shah, A

    Kannaujiya, A. & Shah, A. P . Radiation effects in VLSI circuits- part II: Hardening techniques. IETE Technical Review42, 3–29 (2025)

    2025

  8. [8]

    Muhammad, Z. et al. Radiation-tolerant elec- tronic devices using wide bandgap semiconductors. Advanced Materials Technologies8, 2200539 (2023)

    2023

  9. [9]

    & De Groot, C

    Chatzikyriakou, E., Morgan, K. & De Groot, C. K. Total ionizing dose hardened and mitigation strategies in deep submicrome- ter cmos and beyond. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 65, 808–819 (2018)

    2018

  10. [10]

    Wang, X. et al. Ultralow-power and radiation-tolerant com- plementary metal-oxide-semiconductor electronics utilizing enhancement-mode carbon nanotube transistors on paper sub- strates. Advanced Materials34, 2204066 (2022)

    2022

  11. [11]

    Lacoe, R. C. Improving integrated circuit performance through the application of hardness-by-design methodology. IEEE transactions on Nuclear Science55, 1903–1925 (2008)

    1903

  12. [12]

    & Aunet, S

    Hasanbegovi´ c, A. & Aunet, S. Heavy ion characterization of temporal-, dual-and triple redundant flip-flops across a wide supply voltage range in a 65 nm bulk CMOS process. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science63, 2962–2970 (2016)

    2016

  13. [13]

    Zhu, L. et al. Radiation-tolerant atomic-layer-scale rf system for spaceborne communication. Nature 1–7 (2026)

    2026

  14. [14]

    Zhu, M. et al. Radiation-hardened and repairable integrated circuits based on carbon nanotube transistors with ion gel gates. Nature Electronics3, 622–629 (2020)

    2020

  15. [15]

    Schranghamer, T. F. et al. Radiation resilient two-dimensional electronics. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces15, 26946– 26959 (2023)

    2023

  16. [16]

    Hu, Q. et al. True nonvolatile high-speed DRAM cells using tai- lored ultrathin IGZO. Advanced Materials35, 2210554 (2023)

    2023

  17. [17]

    Bao, B. et al. Amorphous IGZO thin-film transistors: materials, device structures, fabrications, and application explorations. Advanced Functional Materials35, 2503755 (2025)

    2025

  18. [18]

    Biggs, J. et al. A natively flexible 32-bit Arm microprocessor. Nature595, 532–536 (2021). 8

    2021

  19. [19]

    Ozer, E. et al. Bendable non-silicon RISC-V microprocessor. Nature634, 341–346 (2024)

    2024

  20. [20]

    Pearton, S. et al. Radiation damage in GaN/AlGaN and SiC electronic and photonic devices. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B41(2023)

    2023

  21. [21]

    Zhang, K. et al. Large-scale complementary carbon nan- otube integrated circuits for harsh radiation environments. Science Advances11, eadw0024 (2025)

    2025

  22. [22]

    Zhou, X. et al. Hole trapping effect induced by total- ionizing-dose radiation for 650v p-GaN gate HEMTs. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (2025)

    2025

  23. [23]

    J., Shi, T., Jovanovic, I

    Arnold, A. J., Shi, T., Jovanovic, I. & Das, S. Ex- traordinary radiation hardness of atomically thin MoS 2. ACS applied materials & interfaces11, 8391–8399 (2019)

    2019

  24. [24]

    Geng, D. et al. Thin-film transistors for large-area electronics. Nature Electronics6, 963–972 (2023)

    2023

  25. [25]

    Lyons, R. E. & Vanderkulk, W. The use of triple- modular redundancy to improve computer reliability. IBM journal of research and development6, 200–209 (1962)

    1962

  26. [26]

    K., Ramos, J

    Samudrala, P . K., Ramos, J. & Katkoori, S. Selective triple mod- ular redundancy (stmr) based single-event upset (seu) tolerant synthesis for fpgas. IEEE transactions on Nuclear Science51, 2957–2969 (2004)

    2004

  27. [27]

    & Violante, M

    Sterpone, L. & Violante, M. Analysis of the robust- ness of the tmr architecture in sram-based fpgas. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science52, 1545–1549 (2005)

    2005

  28. [28]

    Daneshvar, H. et al. Multilayer radiation shield for satellite electronic components protection. Scientific reports11, 20657 (2021)

    2021

  29. [29]

    & Jordan, T

    Mangeret, R., Carriere, T., Beaucour, J. & Jordan, T. Effects of material and/or structure on shielding of electronic devices. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science43, 2665–2670 (1996)

    1996

  30. [30]

    Yu, L. et al. Design, modeling, and fabrication of chemical vapor deposition grown MoS 2 circuits with E-mode FETs for large-area electronics. Nano letters16, 6349–6356 (2016)

    2016

  31. [31]

    Peng, Y. et al. Medium-scale flexible integrated circuits based on 2D semiconductors. Nature Communications15, 10833 (2024)

    2024

  32. [32]

    Fan, D. et al. Two-dimensional semiconductor integrated cir- cuits operating at gigahertz frequencies. Nature Electronics6, 879–887 (2023)

    2023

  33. [33]

    Nomura, K. et al. Room-temperature fabrication of transparent flexible thin-film transistors using amorphous oxide semicon- ductors. nature432, 488–492 (2004)

    2004

  34. [34]

    Ao, M. et al. A RISC-V 32-bit microprocessor based on two- dimensional semiconductors. Nature640, 654–661 (2025)

    2025

  35. [35]

    Hills, G. et al. Modern microprocessor built from complemen- tary carbon nanotube transistors. Nature572, 595–602 (2019)

    2019

  36. [36]

    K., Bethge, O

    Wachter, S., Polyushkin, D. K., Bethge, O. & Mueller, T. A microprocessor based on a two-dimensional semiconductor. Nature communications8, 14948 (2017)

    2017

  37. [37]

    Dodd, P . E. & Massengill, L. W. Basic mechanisms and modeling of single-event upset in digital microelectronics. IEEE Transactions on nuclear Science50, 583–602 (2003)

    2003

  38. [38]

    Chi, Y. et al. Seu tolerance efficiency of multiple layout- hardened 28 nm DICE D Flip-Flops. Electronics11, 972 (2022)

    2022

  39. [39]

    & Nichols, D

    Soliman, K. & Nichols, D. K. Latchup in CMOS devices from heavy ions. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science30, 4514– 4519 (2007)

    2007

  40. [40]

    Cecchetto, M. et al. Energy deposition and characterization of single event upset and latch-up cross sections with 14 MeV and thermal neutrons. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (2025)

    2025

  41. [41]

    F., Ziegler, M

    Ziegler, J. F., Ziegler, M. D. & Biersack, J. P . Srim– the stopping and range of ions in matter (2010). Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms268, 1818–1823 (2010)

    2010

  42. [42]

    Agostinelli, S. et al. Geant4—a simulation toolkit. Nuclear instruments and methods in physics research section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment506, 250–303 (2003)

    2003

  43. [43]

    Stopping of heavy ions: a theoretical approach, vol

    Sigmund, P . Stopping of heavy ions: a theoretical approach, vol. 204 (Springer Science & Business Media, 2004)

    2004

  44. [44]

    Esposito, M. G. et al. Investigating heavy-ion effects on 14-nm process FinFETs: Displacement damage versus total ionizing dose. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science68, 724–732 (2021)

    2021

  45. [45]

    Martinella, C. et al. Heavy-ion microbeam studies of single-event leakage current mechanism in SiC VD-MOSFETs. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science67, 1381–1389 (2020)

    2020

  46. [46]

    HELLO WORLD

    Yabuta, H. et al. High-mobility thin-film transistor with amor- phous InGaZnO4 channel fabricated by room temperature rf- magnetron sputtering. Applied physics letters89(2006). 9 Methods Fabrication of IGZO amorphous ultathin films.Ultrathin IGZO films were deposited by magnetron sputtering using an AJA In- ternational ORION 8 system. A 99.99%-pure IGZO t...

    2006