Reliable MicroSystems
Lloyd Massengill

should know About Dr. Lloyd Massengill
Publications
Management Team
Dr. Lloyd Massengill
Founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Dr. Massengill has considerable management experience, leading high-impact engineering programs throughout his professional career. In 1987, he established the Radiation Effects Research program at Vanderbilt and has led the group’s research into the mechanisms of single event effects in CMOS technologies, microelectronic circuit modeling for radiation response, PDK and radiation-aware design tool development, radiation effects in high-speed and RF analog/mixed-signal microelectronics, and radiation mitigation through radiation hardened by design (RHBD) techniques. During his career, he served as a lead architect of the U.S. Navy Radiation-Hardened TCAD (Technology Computer-Aided-Design) program, a national effort to address DOD rad-hard technology needs. Until 2015 he served as the founding Director of Engineering for the Vanderbilt University Institute for Space and Defense Electronics, a national center for the engineering support of government and commercial development efforts in integrated circuit technologies and advanced circuit design for mission-critical and fault-tolerant applications. In his ISDE capacity, he was responsible for leading all engineering R&D efforts, including engineering support of the U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Trident Missile Mk6 Life Extension program for design verification and validation from concept to product delivery. In addition to technical management, Dr. Massengill has experience in academic administration. He presently leads the Vanderbilt Microelectronics Circuits Group, which performs applied research into radiation-hardened microelectronic design and assessment. He has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies (twice) and Assoc. Dept. Chair for the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Vanderbilt University. In the former role, he was responsible for day-to-day course staffing and curricular matters, such as course scheduling and teaching assignments. In the latter, he was also responsible for strategic departmental direction. For example, he led the transition of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering academic programs through a successful ABET 2000 accreditation reorganization.
Academia
- Over 30 years of classroom teaching experience at the undergraduate and graduate levels
- Over 1800 students impacted with over 5,000 career student-semester contact hours
- Primary PhD advisor to 16 students (26 as committee member)
- Primary MS advisor to 48 students
- Vanderbilt University Tau Beta Pi Outstanding Engineering Teacher of the Year Award, 1996
Research
International expert in the area of transient radiation failure modes in advanced semiconductor technologies. Has discovered failure modes in the most advanced microelectronics technology nodes (presently 14nm FinFET) and designed hardening solutions in both digital and analog circuitry.
Including the high-impact discovery of:
- Single event charge sharing in sub-100nm CMOS (626 citations across 3 journal papers)
- Single event pulse quenching in digital CMOS (146 citations)
- The dose-rate radiation induced failure mechanism in CMOS memory circuits, called rail-span collapse
Scholar
Over 300 technical publications with 10,023 citations, an h-index of 54, and an i10-index of 191 in:
- Journal of Radiation Effects, Research, and Engineering
- IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
- IEEE Trans. on Devices and Materials Reliability
- IEEE Trans. on Circuit and Systems II
- Smart Materials and Structures
- IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks
- IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits
- IEEE Electron Device Letters
- Simulation Magazine
- Solid State Electronics
Topics include
MOS device operation and modeling, VLSI circuit hardening to radiation effects, VLSI circuit modeling, CMOS SOI device modeling, high-reliability memory circuit designs, technology computer –aided design (TCAD), piezoelectric driver amplifier design, sense amplifier design, charge-based neural network circuits, analog CMOS multiplier circuits, circuit simulation, weapon-environment scrambling of CMOS SRAMs
Two recent review papers with 1123 combined citations and Six Best Paper Awards
Overview of Technical and Management Experience
Prof. Massengill is an expert on microelectronic devices, circuit design, and integrated circuit functional analysis; with particular qualifications in the analysis of circuit failures due to space radiation effects, in circuit design techniques for radiation-fault-tolerant defense systems, and in transistor device analysis for radiation-induced integrated circuit faults. He has more than 30 years experience in the analysis of integrated circuits, the development of circuit analysis techniques, and the development of radiation hardened circuitry. Much of his technical career has been in R&D for national defense programs. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
Dr. Massengill is widely published in the areas of integrated circuit modeling and design, integrated circuit technologies, and integrated circuit reliability. He is an often-invited speaker on the topics of space radiation effects and integrated circuit analysis at international conferences and symposia. He is experienced in the technical areas of transistor operation, integrated circuit technology, analog and digital circuit operation, integrated circuit design, and electronic failure mechanisms.
Dr. Massengill has considerable management experience, leading engineering programs throughout his professional career. He established the Vanderbilt Single Event Radiation Effects program in 1987 and has led the group’s research into the mechanisms of single event effects in CMOS technologies, microelectronic circuit modeling for radiation response, PDK and radiation-aware design tool development, radiation effects in high-speed and RF analog/mixed-signal microelectronics, and radiation mitigation through radiation hardened by design (RHBD) techniques. During his career, he served as a lead architect of the U.S. Navy Radiation-Hardened TCAD (Technology Computer-Aided-Design) program, a multi-million dollar effort to address DOD rad-hard technology needs. He also served as the founding Director of Engineering for the Vanderbilt University Institute for Space and Defense Electronics, a national center with multi-million dollar annual funding for the engineering support of government and commercial development efforts in integrated circuit technologies and advanced circuit design for mission-critical and fault-tolerant applications. In his ISDE capacity, he was responsible for leading all engineering R&D efforts, including engineering support of the U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Trident Missile Mk6 Life Extension program for design verification and validation from concept to product delivery.
In addition to technical management, Dr. Massengill has experience in academic administration. He presently leads the Vanderbilt Microelectronics Circuits Group, which performs applied research into radiation-hardened microelectronic design and assessment. He has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies (twice) and Assoc. Dept. Chair for the Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Vanderbilt University. In the former role, he was responsible for day-to-day course staffing and curricular matters, such as course scheduling and teaching assignments. In the latter, he was also responsible for strategic departmental direction. For example, he led the transition of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering academic programs through a successful ABET 2000 accreditation reorganization.