A Particle Detector Based on Pulse Stretching Inverter Chain

Monitoring of energetic particles responsible for the soft errors is an important requirement in the design of fault-tolerant systems for space missions. In this paper, the use of a custom-sized CMOS pulse stretching inverter chain as a particle detector is studied. The proposed detector allows for measuring the particle flux in terms of the count rate of induced Single Event Transients (SETs). In contrast to the conventional SRAM-based detectors, the proposed solution is potentially more sensitive to particle strikes, requires simpler processing logic and is more immune to multiple errors and error accumulation. The concept has been evaluated with SPICE simulations for the IHP's 130 nm CMOS technology. The target applications are the self-adaptive multi-processor systems, where the particle detector can be used to dynamically trigger the fault-tolerant mechanisms.

[1]  L. Dusseau,et al.  Embedded Detection and Correction of SEU Bursts in SRAM Memories Used as Radiation Detectors , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[2]  Florian Rittner,et al.  Detection of solar particle events inside FPGAs , 2016, 2016 16th European Conference on Radiation and Its Effects on Components and Systems (RADECS).

[3]  J. Holmes,et al.  A Bias-Dependent Single-Event Compact Model Implemented Into BSIM4 and a 90 nm CMOS Process Design Kit , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[4]  Xavier Vera,et al.  A Case for Acoustic Wave Detectors for Soft-Errors , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[6]  P. Hazucha,et al.  Impact of CMOS technology scaling on the atmospheric neutron soft error rate , 2000 .

[7]  Aleksandar Simevski,et al.  Power/Area-Optimized Fault Tolerance for Safety Critical Applications , 2018, 2018 IEEE 24th International Symposium on On-Line Testing And Robust System Design (IOLTS).

[8]  Rolf Kraemer,et al.  Investigating Core-Level N-Modular Redundancy in Multiprocessors , 2014, 2014 IEEE 8th International Symposium on Embedded Multicore/Manycore SoCs.

[9]  Cristiana Bolchini,et al.  Self-Adaptive Fault Tolerance in Multi-/Many-Core Systems , 2013, J. Electron. Test..

[10]  Michael A. Xapsos,et al.  The Space Radiation Environment , 1994 .

[11]  Marko Andjelkovic,et al.  Design of SRAM-Based Low-Cost SEU Monitor for Self-Adaptive Multiprocessing Systems , 2019, 2019 22nd Euromicro Conference on Digital System Design (DSD).

[12]  R. Harboe-Sorensen,et al.  Design, Testing and Calibration of a "Reference SEU Monitor" System , 2005, 2005 8th European Conference on Radiation and Its Effects on Components and Systems.

[13]  Rolf Kraemer,et al.  Study of the operation and SET robustness of a CMOS pulse stretching circuit , 2018, Microelectron. Reliab..

[14]  P. Leroux,et al.  An SRAM-Based Radiation Monitor With Dynamic Voltage Control in 0.18- $\mu$ m CMOS Technology , 2019, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[15]  G. Wirth,et al.  The Bulk Built In Current Sensor Approach for Single Event Transient Detection , 2007, 2007 International Symposium on System-on-Chip.

[16]  Shigetaka Kumashiro,et al.  Measurement of neutron-induced single event transient pulse width narrower than 100ps , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium.

[17]  M. Havranek,et al.  MAPS sensor for radiation imaging designed in 180 nm SOI CMOS technology , 2018, Journal of Instrumentation.

[18]  Rui Dilão,et al.  Radiation environment measurements with the cosmic ray experiments on-board the KITSAT-1 and PoSAT-1 micro-satellites , 1994 .