CMOS RAM cosmic-ray-induced-error-rate analysis

Abstract

A significant number of spacecraft operational anomalies are believed to be associated with cosmic-ray-induced soft errors in the LSI memories. Test programs using a cyclotron to simulate cosmic rays have established conclusively that many common commercial memory types are vulnerable to heavy-ion upset. A description is given of the methodology and the results of a detailed analysis for predicting the bit-error rate in an assumed space environment for CMOS memory devices. Results are presented for three types of commercially available CMOS 1,024-bit RAMs. It was found that the HM6508 is susceptible to single-ion induced latchup from argon and krypton ions. The HS6508 and HS6508RH and the CDP1821 apparently are not susceptible to single-ion induced latchup.