Download Single Event Upset Errors in Digital Electronics

Single Event Upsets in Digital VLSI
Circuits
EYES Summer Internship Program 2007
University of New Mexico
Vinay Jain
Final Year Undergraduate
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Dr. Payman Zarkesh-Ha
Assistant Professor ECE
University of New Mexico
Acknowledgements
Outline
 Introduction
 Soft-Spot Analysis
 Inverter Model proposed
 Simulation Results
 Extension of the Model
Introduction
 Origin
 Soft errors, Single Event Transients (SET)
and Single Event Upsets (SEU)
 Techniques to reduce SET propagation
 Softness of a node
Origin of Soft errors: cosmic
neutrons and α- particles
Particle Strike in CMOS Digital VLSI circuits. SET and SEU
Soft-Spot Analysis
 Timing Masking Factor, TN


Tendency of a node to allow noise in particular
time window
Computed using time delays and sensitive
window durations of various gates in the path
 Logic Masking Factor, LN


Likelihood for noise at a node to logically reach
the storage element
Computed using probability of nodes in the path
to acquire certain states
 Electrical Masking Factor, EN


Ability of a node to allow noise propagation
with enough strength
Computed from the characteristics of Noise
Rejection Curves
 Overall Softness, SN

SN = TN*LN*EN
Noise Rejection Curves
Noise Rejection Curves for an inverter and
its effects as Load and Size of the inverter is varied
Inverter Model Proposed
Model proposed is- replacement of MOS transistors with constant current
sources the DC value of which is the average drain currents of the transistors
A. Velocity Saturation Effects in short channel MOSFETs
υ = μ.E / (1 + E / EC) , E < EC
= υSAT , E > EC
where EC = 2 υSAT/ μ
VDSATn = VGTn / (1 + VGTn / ECn.Ln)
for short channel (small Ln)
saturates to VDSATn = ECn.Ln
as VGTn is increased
= VGTn, long channel (large Ln)
IDSATn =
=
~
~
υSATn.Cox.Wn.( VGTn -VDSATn )
υSATn.Cox.Wn.(VGTn)2 / (VGTn + ECn.Ln)
υSATn. Cox.Wn.(VGTn)
for small channel MOSFETs (small Ln)
υSATn. Cox.Wn.(VGTn)2 / ECn.Ln for long channel MOSFETs (large Ln)
B. Voltage Transfer Characteristic
Noise can propagate only when input pulse has
magnitude greater than Vm
Voltage Transfer Characteristic for an Inverter
(INVx1)
C. Average Current Model
ID VDS characteristic for an
inverter (INVx1) for gate
Voltage greater than Vm
IN =(IDn)avg = IDSATn(1 + λn(VDD + Vm)/ 2)
IN = Cn*. IDSATn
where Cn* = 1 + λn(VDD + Vm)/ 2
<VDSATp> = VDSATp
at VG = (VDD + Vm)/ 2
IP1= IDSATp. (1+λp.<VDSATp>)
IP2= IDSATp. (1+λp.(VDD - Vm))
IP= (IDp)avg = [ (IP1/2).<VDSATp> + {(IP1+IP2)/2}.(VDD – Vm – <VDSATp>) ] /
(VDD – Vm )
= IDSATp.(1 + λp(VDD - Vm)/ 2 – <VDSATp>/(2.(VDD - Vm)) )
Thus,
IP = Cp*. IDSATp
where Cp* = 1 + λp(VDD - Vm)/ 2 – <VDSATp>/(2.(VDD - Vm))
Thus, we have IN = Cn*IDSATn & IP = Cp*IDSATp
where both Cn* & Cp* are constants and close to unity.
We can now calculate TC as the minimum duration
required for a noise pulse of height VC volts, to
propagate through the inverter as
TC = CL.(VDD - Vm)/(IN - IP)
with VG = VC
The above equation gives a relation between TC and VC
as a function of only Gate size (W and L) of p-MOS
and n-MOS.
Simulation Results
Noise Rejection Curves comparison for INVx1
(Load = 200fF)
Time taken for simulation by matlab = 0.074 sec
Time taken for simulation by Tspice = 4.48 sec
Mean %error = 11.59%
Noise Rejection Curves comparison for INVx2
(Load = 200fF)
Time taken for simulation by matlab = 0.077 sec
Time taken for simulation by Tspice = 4.45 sec
Mean %error = 4.68%
Noise Rejection Curves comparison for INVx4
(Load = 200fF)
Noise Rejection Curves comparison for INVx8
Time taken for simulation by matlab = 0.074 sec
Time taken for simulation by matlab = 0.069 sec
Time taken for simulation by Tspice = 4.61 sec
Time taken for simulation by Tspice = 4.42 sec
Mean %error = 6.70%
Mean %error = 17.65%
(Load = 200fF)
Extension of the model
Modeling of NAND gates for easy computation of Noise Rejection Curves
Modeling of NOR gates for easy computation of Noise Rejection Curves
Noise Rejection Curves comparison for
NANDx1 (Load = 200fF)
Time taken for simulation by matlab = 0.078 sec
Time taken for simulation by Tspice = 5.05 sec
Mean %error = 30.16%
Noise Rejection Curves comparison for
NORx1 (Load = 200fF)
Time taken for simulation by matlab = 0.076 sec
Time taken for simulation by Tspice = 5.09 sec
Mean %error = 9.23%
References
[1] C. Zhao, X. Bai, S. Dey, “A scalable soft spot analysis methodology for
compound noise effects in nano-meter circuits,” DAC’04, pp. 894-899, June
2004.
[2] C. Zhao, S. Dey, “Improving transient error tolerance of digital VLSI circuits
using RObustness COmpiler (ROCO),” International Symposium on Quality
Electronic Design, ISQED’06
[3] C.G. Sodini, P. Ko, J. Moll, “The effect of high fields on MOS device and circuit
performance,” IEEE transactions on Electron Devices, October 1984, pp.13861393
[4] J. M. Rabaey, A. Chandrakasan, B. Nikolic, “Digital Integrated Circuits,” Second
edition, 2003
Thank You