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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1989

SEU In An Advanced Bipolar Integrated Circuit

Report summarizes investigation of single-event upsets (SEU) in bipolar integrated-circuit set of flip-flops (memory cells). Device tested made by advanced digital bipolar silicon process of Honeywell, Inc. Circuit chip contained 4 cells. Construction enabled study of effect of size on SEU behavior. Each cell externally biased so effect of bias current on SEU behavior. Results of study provides important information for optimal design of devices fabricated using buried-layer bipolar process operating in heavy-ion SEU environments. Designers use information to provide required levels of suppression of SEU in specific applications via combinations of size and/or cell-current scaling.

Zoutendyk, John A.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Single Event Effects in Highly Scaled Devices for Space Applications

This paper discusses single-event upset (SEU) in memories and microprocessors that are the "drivers" of highly scaled commercial integrated circuits. Despite the decrease in critical charge that occurs for highly scaled CMOS devices, recent test data has shown that SEU rates are actually somewhat lower for scaled devices compared to older devices with larger feature size. Hard errors, which are increasingly important for memories, are discussed along with conventional soft errors. Functional errors in memories and microprocessors are particularly significant, and tend to dominate the response of highly scaled devices from an application standpoint. Predictions for future devices are made using the Semiconductor Industry Roadmap along with recent modeling and radiation test results.

microelectronics↗
NASA NTRS2011

Single-Event Gate Rupture in Power MOSFETs: A New Radiation Hardness Assurance Approach

Almost every space mission uses vertical power metal-semiconductor-oxide field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) in its power-supply circuitry. These devices can fail catastrophically due to single-event gate rupture (SEGR) when exposed to energetic heavy ions. To reduce SEGR failure risk, the off-state operating voltages of the devices are derated based upon radiation tests at heavy-ion accelerator facilities. Testing is very expensive. Even so, data from these tests provide only a limited guide to on-orbit performance. In this work, a device simulation-based method is developed to measure the response to strikes from heavy ions unavailable at accelerator facilities but posing potential risk on orbit. This work is the first to show that the present derating factor, which was established from non-radiation reliability concerns, is appropriate to reduce on-orbit SEGR failure risk when applied to data acquired from ions with appropriate penetration range. A second important outcome of this study is the demonstration of the capability and usefulness of this simulation technique for augmenting SEGR data from accelerator beam facilities. The mechanisms of SEGR are two-fold: the gate oxide is weakened by the passage of the ion through it, and the charge ionized along the ion track in the silicon transiently increases the oxide electric field. Most hardness assurance methodologies consider the latter mechanism only. This work demonstrates through experiment and simulation that the gate oxide response should not be neglected. In addition, the premise that the temporary weakening of the oxide due to the ion interaction with it, as opposed to due to the transient oxide field generated from within the silicon, is validated. Based upon these findings, a new approach to radiation hardness assurance for SEGR in power MOSFETs is defined to reduce SEGR risk in space flight projects. Finally, the potential impact of accumulated dose over the course of a space mission on SEGR susceptibility is explored. SEGR evaluation of gamma-irradiated power MOSFETs suggests a non-significant SEGR susceptibility enhancement due to accumulated dose from gamma rays. During SEGR testing, an unexpected enhanced dose effect from heavy-ion irradiation was detected. We demonstrate that this effect could be due to direct ionization by two or more ions at the same channel location. The probability on-orbit for such an occurrence is near-zero given the low heavy-ion fluence over a typical mission lifetime, and did not affect SEGR susceptibility. The results of this work can be used to bound the risk of SEGR in power MOSFETs considered for insertion into spacecraft and instruments.

Lauenstein, Jean-Marie↗
NASA NTRS1987

1987 Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, Snowmass Village, CO, July 28-31, 1987, Proceedings

Various papers on nuclear and space radiation effects are presented. The general topics addressed include: basic mechanisms of radiation effects, single-event phenomena, temperature and field effects, modeling and characterization of radiation effects, IC radiation effects and hardening, and EMP/SGEMP/IEMP phenomena. Also considered are: dosimetry/energy-dependent effects, sensors in and for radiation environments, spacecraft charging and space radiation effects, radiation effects and devices, radiation effects on isolation technologies, and hardness assurance and testing techniques.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2008

Guideline for ground radiation testing of microprocessors in the space radiation environment

The goal of this work is to develop a guideline that is applicable to processors that are potentially useful in space. Thus, the guideline does not consider very high performance processors that are intended for server or high-performance applications where very large amounts of power are tolerated to gain performance because it would be impractical to use such high-power devices in typical space applications. This guide is intended to support insertion of these microprocessors into spaceflight applications and to recommend ground test protocols. The first guideline principle that should be followed is a serious concurrent engineering approach for down selecting space-qualified microprocessors. This requires that the design engineer seek the support of a radiation effects expert who understands total ionizing dose (TID) and single-event effects (SEEs) issues for microprocessors as applied to the system in question.

Irom, Farokh↗
NASA NTRS2013

What Reliability Engineers Should Know about Space Radiation Effects

Space radiation in space systems present unique failure modes and considerations for reliability engineers. Radiation effects is not a one size fits all field. Threat conditions that must be addressed for a given mission depend on the mission orbital profile, the technologies of parts used in critical functions and on application considerations, such as supply voltages, temperature, duty cycle, and redundancy. In general, the threats that must be addressed are of two types-the cumulative degradation mechanisms of total ionizing dose (TID) and displacement damage (DD). and the prompt responses of components to ionizing particles (protons and heavy ions) falling under the heading of single-event effects. Generally degradation mechanisms behave like wear-out mechanisms on any active components in a system: Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and Displacement Damage: (1) TID affects all active devices over time. Devices can fail either because of parametric shifts that prevent the device from fulfilling its application or due to device failures where the device stops functioning altogether. Since this failure mode varies from part to part and lot to lot, lot qualification testing with sufficient statistics is vital. Displacement damage failures are caused by the displacement of semiconductor atoms from their lattice positions. As with TID, failures can be either parametric or catastrophic, although parametric degradation is more common for displacement damage. Lot testing is critical not just to assure proper device fi.mctionality throughout the mission. It can also suggest remediation strategies when a device fails. This paper will look at these effects on a variety of devices in a variety of applications. This paper will look at these effects on a variety of devices in a variety of applications. (2) On the NEAR mission a functional failure was traced to a PIN diode failure caused by TID induced high leakage currents. NEAR was able to recover from the failure by reversing the current of a nearby Thermal Electric Cooler (turning the TEC into a heater). The elevated temperature caused the PIN diode to anneal and the device to recover. It was by lot qualification testing that NEAR knew the diode would recover when annealed. This paper will look at these effects on a variety of devices in a variety of applications. Single Event Effects (SEE): (1) In contrast to TID and displacement damage, Single Event Effects (SEE) resemble random failures. SEE modes can range from changes in device logic (single-event upset, or SEU). temporary disturbances (single-event transient) to catastrophic effects such as the destructive SEE modes, single-event latchup (SEL). single-event gate rupture (SEGR) and single-event burnout (SEB) (2) The consequences of nondestructive SEE modes such as SEU and SET depend critically on their application--and may range from trivial nuisance errors to catastrophic loss of mission. It is critical not just to ensure that potentially susceptible devices are well characterized for their susceptibility, but also to work with design engineers to understand the implications of each error mode. -For destructive SEE, the predominant risk mitigation strategy is to avoid susceptible parts, or if that is not possible. to avoid conditions under which the part may be susceptible. Destructive SEE mechanisms are often not well understood, and testing is slow and expensive, making rate prediction very challenging. (3) Because the consequences of radiation failure and degradation modes depend so critically on the application as well as the component technology, it is essential that radiation, component. design and system engineers work togetherpreferably starting early in the program to ensure critical applications are addressed in time to optimize the probability of mission success.

DiBari, Rebecca↗
NASA NTRS2011

Investigation of the Semicoa SCF9550 and the International Rectifier IRHM57260SE for Single-Event Gate Rapture and Single-Event Burnout : NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program Office of Safety and Mission Assurance

Single-event-effect test results for hi-rel total-dose-hardened power MOSFETs are presented in this report. TheSCF9550 from Semicoa and the IRHM57260SE from International Rectifier were tested to NASA test condition/standards and requirements.The IRHM57260SE performed much better when compared to previous testing. These initial results confirm that parts from the Temecula line are marginally comparable to the El Segundo line. The SCF9550 from Semicoa was also tested and represents the initial parts offering from this vendor. Both parts experienced single-event gate rupture (SEGR) and single-event burnout (SEB). All of the SEGR was from gate to drain.

Single Event Gate Rupture↗
NASA NTRS2010

Localized Triple Modular Redundancy vs. Distributed Triple Modular Redundancy on a ProASIC3E Reprogrammable FPGA

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) are used in every space application. Currently, most space flight applications use radiation hardened (RH) FPGAs, which are very expensive. There is a desire to use cheaper, commercial off the shelf reprogrammable FPGAs, which are more susceptible to radiation effects known as single-event effects (SEE). The RH parts have SEE and total ionizing dose (TID) hardened elements pre-integrated into the part. This means that the designer does not need to implement any hardening techniques while configuring the device. The COTS parts on the other hand must be mitigated by design in order to insure any form of mitigation. The design techniques this project examines concern the use of localized triple modular redundancy (LTMR) and distributed triple modular redundancy (DTMR). LTMR triples every flip flop in the device architecture while DTMR triples everything except for the global routes (clocks, resets, and enables). The testing was performed on a ProASIC3E FPGA at the Texas A&M cyclotron facility. Two design architectures were used: shift registers and counters, both with LTMR and DTMR mitigation techniques. The test results prove that DTMR is more effective at reducing SEE than LTMR. We also determined that there was not a significant difference between the use of shift registers and counters for test purposes. More testing is required to obtain additional linear energy transfer values for each architecture and mitigation technique in order to determine the most cost-effective method of SEE mitigation.

McGuffey, Alex↗
NASA NTRS2012

Radiation Tests of Highly Scaled, High-Density, Commercial, Nonvolatile NAND Flash Memories - Update 2012

The space radiation environment poses a certain risk to all electronic components on Earth-orbiting and planetary mission spacecraft. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the use of high-density, commercial, nonvolatile flash memories in space because of ever-increasing data volumes and strict power requirements. They are used in a wide variety of spacecraft subsystems. At one end of the spectrum, flash memories are used to store small amounts of mission-critical data such as boot code or configuration files and, at the other end, they are used to construct multi-gigabyte data recorders that record mission science data. This report examines single-event effect (SEE) and total ionizing dose (TID) response in single-level cell (SLC) 32-Gb, multi-level cell (MLC) 64-Gb, and Triple-level (TLC) 64-Gb NAND flash memories manufactured by Micron Technology with feature size of 25 nm.

Irom, Farokh↗
NASA NTRS2012

Radiation tests of highly scaled, high-density, commercial, nonvolatile NAND flash memories— update 2012

The space radiation environment poses a certain risk to all electronic components on Earth-orbiting and planetary mission spacecraft. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the use of high-density, commercial, nonvolatile flash memories in space because of ever-increasing data volumes and strict power requirements. They are used in a wide variety of spacecraft subsystems. At one end of the spectrum, flash memories are used to store small amounts of mission-critical data such as boot code or configuration files and, at the other end, they are used to construct multi-gigabyte data recorders that record mission science data. This report examines single-event effect (SEE) and total ionizing dose (TID) response in single-level cell (SLC) 32-Gb, multi-level cell (MLC) 64-Gb, and Triple-level (TLC) 64-Gb NAND flash memories manufactured by Micron Technology with feature size of 25 nm.

Allen, Gregory R.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Single-Event Transients in Voltage Regulators

Single-event transients are investigated for two voltage regulator circuits that are widely used in space. A circuit-level model is developed that can be used to determine how transients are affected by different circuit application conditions. Internal protection circuits-which are affected by load as well as internal thermal effects-can also be triggered from heavy ions, causing dropouts or shutdown ranging from milliseconds to seconds. Although conventional output transients can be reduced by adding load capacitance, that approach is ineffective for dropouts from protection circuitry.

circuit testing↗
NASA NTRS1989

Product assurance technology for procuring reliable, radiation-hard, custom LSI/VLSI electronics

Advanced measurement methods using microelectronic test chips are described. These chips are intended to be used in acquiring the data needed to qualify Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC's) for space use. Efforts were focused on developing the technology for obtaining custom IC's from CMOS/bulk silicon foundries. A series of test chips were developed: a parametric test strip, a fault chip, a set of reliability chips, and the CRRES (Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite) chip, a test circuit for monitoring space radiation effects. The technical accomplishments of the effort include: (1) development of a fault chip that contains a set of test structures used to evaluate the density of various process-induced defects; (2) development of new test structures and testing techniques for measuring gate-oxide capacitance, gate-overlap capacitance, and propagation delay; (3) development of a set of reliability chips that are used to evaluate failure mechanisms in CMOS/bulk: interconnect and contact electromigration and time-dependent dielectric breakdown; (4) development of MOSFET parameter extraction procedures for evaluating subthreshold characteristics; (5) evaluation of test chips and test strips on the second CRRES wafer run; (6) two dedicated fabrication runs for the CRRES chip flight parts; and (7) publication of two papers: one on the split-cross bridge resistor and another on asymmetrical SRAM (static random access memory) cells for single-event upset analysis.

Buehler, M. G.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Tradeoffs in Flight Design Upset Mitigation in State of the Art FPGAs: Hardened by Design vs. Design Level Hardening

This presentation compares and contrasts the effectiveness and the system/designer impacts of the two main approaches to upset hardening: the Actel approach (RTSX-S and RTAX-S) of low-level (inside each flip-flop) triplication and the Xilinx approach (Virtex and Virtex2) of design-level triplication of both functional blocks and voters. The effectiveness of these approaches is compared using measurements made in conjunction with each of the FPGAs' manufacturer: for Actel, published data [1] and for Xilinx, recent results from the Xilinx SEE Test Consortium (note that the author is an active and founding member). The impacts involve Actel advantages in the areas of transistor-utilization efficiency and minimizing designer involvement in the triplication while the Xilinx advantages relate to the ability to custom tailor upset hardness and the flexibility of re-configurability. Additionally, there are currently clear Xilinx advantages in available features such as the number of I/O's, logic cells, and RAM blocks as well as speed. However, the advantage of the Actel anti-fuses for configuration over the Xilinx SRAM cells is that the latter need additional functionality and external circuitry (PROMs and, at least a watchdog timer) for configuration and configuration scrubbing. Further, although effectively mitigated if done correctly, the proton upset-ability of the Xilinx FPGAs is a concern in severe proton-rich environments. Ultimately, both manufacturers' upset hardening is limited by SEFI (single-event functional interrupt) rates where it appears the Actel results are better although the Xilinx Virtex2-family result of about one SEFI in 65 device-years in solar-min GCR (the more intense part of the galactic cosmic-ray background) should be acceptable to most missions

radiation effects↗
NASA NTRS2011

Orion Absolute Navigation System Progress and Challenges

The Orion spacecraft is being designed as NASA's next-generation exploration vehicle for crewed missions beyond Low-Earth Orbit. The navigation system for the Orion spacecraft is being designed in a Multi-Organizational Design Environment (MODE) team including contractor and NASA personnel. The system uses an Extended Kalman Filter to process measurements and determine the state. The design of the navigation system has undergone several iterations and modifications since its inception, and continues as a work-in-progress. This paper seeks to benchmark the current state of the design and some of the rationale and analysis behind it. There are specific challenges to address when preparing a timely and effective design for the Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1), while still looking ahead and providing software extensibility for future exploration missions. The primary measurements in a Near-Earth or Mid-Earth environment consist of GPS pseudorange and deltarange, but for future explorations missions the use of star-tracker and optical navigation sources need to be considered. Discussions are presented for state size and composition, processing techniques, and consider states. A presentation is given for the processing technique using the computationally stable and robust UDU formulation with an Agee-Turner Rank-One update. This allows for computational savings when dealing with many parameters which are modeled as slowly varying Gauss-Markov processes. Preliminary analysis shows up to a 50% reduction in computation versus a more traditional formulation. Several state elements are discussed and evaluated, including position, velocity, attitude, clock bias/drift, and GPS measurement biases in addition to bias, scale factor, misalignment, and non-orthogonalities of the accelerometers and gyroscopes. Another consideration is the initialization of the EKF in various scenarios. Scenarios such as single-event upset, ground command, pad alignment, cold start are discussed as are strategies for whole and partial state updates as well as covariance considerations. Strategies are given for dealing with latent measurements and high-rate propagation using multi-rate architecture. The details of the rate groups and the data ow between the elements is discussed and evaluated.

Holt, Greg N.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Orion Absolute Navigation System Progress and Challenge

The absolute navigation design of NASA's Orion vehicle is described. It has undergone several iterations and modifications since its inception, and continues as a work-in-progress. This paper seeks to benchmark the current state of the design and some of the rationale and analysis behind it. There are specific challenges to address when preparing a timely and effective design for the Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1), while still looking ahead and providing software extensibility for future exploration missions. The primary onboard measurements in a Near-Earth or Mid-Earth environment consist of GPS pseudo-range and delta-range, but for future explorations missions the use of star-tracker and optical navigation sources need to be considered. Discussions are presented for state size and composition, processing techniques, and consider states. A presentation is given for the processing technique using the computationally stable and robust UDU formulation with an Agee-Turner Rank-One update. This allows for computational savings when dealing with many parameters which are modeled as slowly varying Gauss-Markov processes. Preliminary analysis shows up to a 50% reduction in computation versus a more traditional formulation. Several state elements are discussed and evaluated, including position, velocity, attitude, clock bias/drift, and GPS measurement biases in addition to bias, scale factor, misalignment, and non-orthogonalities of the accelerometers and gyroscopes. Another consideration is the initialization of the EKF in various scenarios. Scenarios such as single-event upset, ground command, and cold start are discussed as are strategies for whole and partial state updates as well as covariance considerations. Strategies are given for dealing with latent measurements and high-rate propagation using multi-rate architecture. The details of the rate groups and the data ow between the elements is discussed and evaluated.

Holt, Greg N.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Uncertainties in radiation effect predictions for the natural radiation environments of space

Future manned missions beyond low earth orbit require accurate predictions of the risk to astronauts and to critical systems from exposure to ionizing radiation. For low-level exposures, the hazards are dominated by rare single-event phenomena where individual cosmic-ray particles or spallation reactions result in potentially catastrophic changes in critical components. Examples might be a biological lesion leading to cancer in an astronaut or a memory upset leading to an undesired rocket firing. The risks of such events appears to depend on the amount of energy deposited within critical sensitive volumes of biological cells and microelectronic components. The critical environmental information needed to estimate the risks posed by the natural space environments, including solar flares, is the number of times more than a threshold amount of energy for an event will be deposited in the critical microvolumes. These predictions are complicated by uncertainties in the natural environments, particularly the composition of flares, and by the effects of shielding. Microdosimetric data for large numbers of orbits are needed to improve the environmental models and to test the transport codes used to predict event rates.

Mcnulty, P. J.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Characteristics of Single-Event Upsets in a Fabric Switch (ADS151)

Abstract-Two types of single event effects - bit errors and single event functional interrupts - were observed during heavy-ion testing of the AD8151 crosspoint switch. Bit errors occurred in bursts with the average number of bits in a burst being dependent on both the ion LET and on the data rate. A pulsed laser was used to identify the locations on the chip where the bit errors and single event functional interrupts occurred. Bit errors originated in the switches, drivers, and output buffers. Single event functional interrupts occurred when the laser was focused on the second rank latch containing the data specifying the state of each switch in the 33x17 matrix.

Buchner, Stephen↗