Single Event Upset

Ion beams are useful to simulate the environment in space, where semiconductor devices are exposed to high-energy heavy-ion impact. Incorrect operation of semiconductor devices such as single-event upset results from the heavy-ion irradiation. The cocktail ion families of MjQ = 4 and 5, available at the JAERI AVF cyclotron facility [24], are frequently utilized to investigate the tolerance of the semiconductor devices to the radiation, and to survey highly radiation-tolerant semiconductor devices appearing in the market. Efficiency of the radiation-tolerance testing for thousands of kinds of semiconductor devices has been totally improved by the cocktail acceleration technique. 

Three microbeam systems were developed at the TIARA facility for application to materials science and biotechnology. A heavy-ion microbeam system installed on a beam line of the 3-MV tandem accelerator is the first one developed to study single-event upset (SEU) of semiconductor devices used for space [36]. The microbeam system can focus heavy-ion beams such as a 15-MeV nickel ion with a spot size of less than 1 pm. In order to observe the SEU phenomena at a specific position of the microdevice, the microbeam system is equipped with a single-ion hit system, consisting of single-ion detectors and a fast beam switcher. 

Figure 15 Single-event upset cross section for 256-kbit SRAM as a function of LET. Closed circles and solid line represent experimental and fitting results, respectively.

SCHILLACI, M. REORDA, M. VIOLANTE, M. A new approach to cope with single event upsets in processor-based systems. In IEEE LATIN-AMERICAN TEST WORKSHOP, 7., 2006, LATW 2006, Buenos Aires, ARG. Proceedings... [S.I. s.n.], 2006, pp. 145-150. 

We were able to take advantage of the four processors to provide tolerance of hardware faults and of single event upsets. 

FITS can emulate the existence of faults of different types (stuck-at, bit-flips, etc.) or even can emulate complex fault or error models. However, the most commonly used in the community is the single bit-flip fault as it well mimics the occurrence of Single Event Upsets (SEU [1, 3]). 

Pre-service testability vav Licensing and safety Cyber-aitack Single Event Upset (SEU) aixl other e-related ilure modes such as electro-migration Maintenance aspects Configuration management and char control Obsolescence risk for operator Cost X % m 33 IS>... 

Bridgford, B., Carmichael, C., Tseng, C.W. Single-Event Upset Mitigation Selection Guide, Application Note XAPP987, Xihnx Inc., San Jose, Cahf. (March 2008)... 

The term random error refers to one or more bits in error, distributed randomly in b. Random errors can be single (only one bit is affected) or multiple. Single errors are commonly produced by single event effects (SEEs) [8] single event upsets (SEUs, in random access memories), single event transients (SETs, in combinational logic), etc. 

Normand, E. Single event upsets at ground level. IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 1996, 43 (6), 2742. 

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