학술논문

The Contribution of Low-Energy Protons to the Total On-Orbit SEU Rate
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on. 62(6):2440-2451 Dec, 2015
Subject
Nuclear Engineering
Bioengineering
Protons
Error analysis
Random access memory
Silicon
Space vehicles
Single event upsets
Silicon-on-insulator
Angular effects
error rate prediction
proton direct ionization
secondary protons
single-event effects (SEEs)
Language
ISSN
0018-9499
1558-1578
Abstract
Low- and high-energy proton experimental data and error rate predictions are presented for many bulk Si and SOI circuits from the 20-90 nm technology nodes to quantify how much low-energy protons (LEPs) can contribute to the total on-orbit single-event upset (SEU) rate. Every effort was made to predict LEP error rates that are conservatively high; even secondary protons generated in the spacecraft shielding have been included in the analysis. Across all the environments and circuits investigated, and when operating within 10% of the nominal operating voltage, LEPs were found to increase the total SEU rate to up to 4.3 times as high as it would have been in the absence of LEPs. Therefore, the best approach to account for LEP effects may be to calculate the total error rate from high-energy protons and heavy ions, and then multiply it by a safety margin of 5. If that error rate can be tolerated then our findings suggest that it is justified to waive LEP tests in certain situations. Trends were observed in the LEP angular responses of the circuits tested. Grazing angles were the worst case for the SOI circuits, whereas the worst-case angle was at or near normal incidence for the bulk circuits.