Modeling Soft-Error Susceptibility for IP Blocks

As device geometries continue to shrink, single event upsets are becoming of concern to a wider spectrum of system designers. These “soft errors” can be a nuisance or catastrophic, depending on the application, but they must be understood and their effects budgeted for. Ultimately, experimental measurement is needed to quantify soft error rates, but after-the-fact measurement is too late to make changes. This paper shows a methodology that can be used to estimate the soft error properties of individual IP blocks by using a combination of critical charge calculations and experimental data. 1 Background: Soft Errors Single event upsets (SEU) result from a variety of physical phenomena, including alpha emissions from radioactive decay in solder, high-energy (>1MeV) neutrons from atmospheric cosmic ray collisions, and thermal neutrons and heavy ions from nearby radioactive events (cosmic ray or decay related). All but high-energy neutrons can be protected against through judicious ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: IOLTS
• Authors: Robert C. Aitken, Betina Hold
• Keywords: Data Center, IOLTS 2005, Single Event Upsets, Soft Errors, Software Engineering