- Email:
- swestfa@iu.edu
Bio
Spencer Westfall currently attends Indiana University, pursuing a Ph.D. in Intelligent systems engineering with a focus on single-event effects in CMOS technologies. His research centers on the design and fabrication of custom radiation effects test chips and on-chip measurement architectures for SET and SEU characterization. He works as a research assistant in the Reliable Electronics and Systems Laboratory, where he designs integrated circuits and performs heavy-ion testing and circuit-level analysis of radiation response.
Research
Built-In Self-Test Measurement of Single Event Transients in the Skywater S90ln 90 Nm Process
Heavy-ion-induced single-event transients (SETs) in combinational logic fabricated in the SkyWater S90LN 90 nm bulk CMOS process were experimentally characterized using custom-designed programmable built-in self-test (BIST) circuits. Multiple logic-specific test structures were integrated on a single chip and irradiated simultaneously at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The BIST architecture enabled autonomous, on-chip measurement of SET behavior across a range of linear energy transfer (LET) conditions. This approach demonstrates the effectiveness of purpose-built test chips for technology-relevant SET characterization.
Radiation Testing
Spencer Westfall has hands-on experience conducting radiation testing across a range of facilities. His experimental background includes short-pulse gamma testing at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Bumblebee facility, total ionizing dose (TID) testing under cryogenic conditions (77 K) using a Co-60 source at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), proton irradiation testing at ProNova Solutions, and heavy-ion testing at both the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) 88″ Cyclotron and the Texas A&M University Cyclotron Institute. Across these campaigns, he has supported test planning, hardware integration, beam operations, data acquisition, and post-irradiation analysis, with a primary focus on circuit-level radiation response and custom radiation test-chip evaluation.
