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NASA NTRS1993

Test report for single event effects of the 80386DX microprocessor

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Section 514 Single Event Effects (SEE) Testing and Analysis Group has performed a series of SEE tests of certain strategic registers of Intel's 80386DX CHMOS 4 microprocessor. Following a summary of the test techniques and hardware used to gather the data, we present the SEE heavy ion and proton test results. We also describe the registers tested, along with a system impact analysis should these registers experience a single event upset.

Watson, R. Kevin↗
NASA NTRS2005

Ionizing Radiation Environment on the International Space Station: Performance vs. Expectations for Avionics and Material

The role of structural shielding mass in the design, verification, and in-flight performance of International Space Station (ISS), in both the natural and induced orbital ionizing radiation (IR) environments, is reported. Detailed consideration of the effects of both the natural and induced ionizing radiation environment during ISS design, development, and flight operations has produced a safe, efficient manned space platform that is largely immune to deleterious effects of the LEO ionizing radiation environment. The assumption of a small shielding mass for purposes of design and verification has been shown to be a valid worst-case approximation approach to design for reliability, though predicted dependences of single event effect (SEE) effects on latitude, longitude, SEP events, and spacecraft structural shielding mass are not observed. The Figure of Merit (FOM) method over predicts the rate for median shielding masses of about 10g/cm(exp 2) by only a factor of 3, while the Scott Effective Flux Approach (SEFA) method overestimated by about one order of magnitude as expected. The Integral Rectangular Parallelepiped (IRPP), SEFA, and FOM methods for estimating on-orbit (Single Event Upsets) SEU rates all utilize some version of the CREME-96 treatment of energetic particle interaction with structural shielding, which has been shown to underestimate the production of secondary particles in heavily shielded manned spacecraft. The need for more work directed to development of a practical understanding of secondary particle production in massive structural shielding for SEE design and verification is indicated. In contrast, total dose estimates using CAD based shielding mass distributions functions and the Shieldose Code provided a reasonable accurate estimate of accumulated dose in Grays internal to the ISS pressurized elements, albeit as a result of using worst-on-worst case assumptions (500 km altitude x 2) that compensate for ignoring both GCR and secondary particle production in massive structural shielding.

Koontz, Steven L.↗
NASA NTRS2024

EdgeCortix SAKURA-I Machine-Learning, PCIe Accelerator SEE Heavy Ion Test Report

To enable autonomy in space, machine-learning and computer vision applications become invaluable for sensor processing. However, these algorithms are computationally complex and unfeasible for many embedded central processing units (CPUs) and usually require external coprocessors, such as graphics processing units (GPUs) or accelerators specific to the application, including application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). In power-constrained systems, GPUs tend to consume more power than is acceptable (>40W), so lower-power accelerators have shown promise to provide the performance needed under spacecraft constraints. For radiation engineers, developing methodologies that can properly test CPUs, GPUs, and accelerators, and enable comparisons between them remains a necessary complication to solve as the devices become more complex. The methodology in this test aims to be a start in developing a baseline single-event effect (SEE) test for client-device machine learning accelerators. This category of devices do not host their own operating system. This testing campaign is a continuation of a previous 200 MeV proton test performed in January 2024. This report covers two heavy ion tests of the SAKURA-I card: one in April 2024, and one in June 2024. Additional data was needed after the April test due to ion-range issues experienced at higher linear-energy transfers (LETs). These range issues are described in more detail in Section 8. This experiment characterizes SEEs and data error susceptibility of the EdgeCortix SAKURA-I machine-learning accelerator under heavy ions. The device was monitored for single event upsets (SEUs) and single event functional interrupts (SEFIs) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 88-inch cyclotron. The SAKURA-I board accelerates machine-learning inference applications on a host computer through a PCIex16 connection. For the purposes of devising an end to end automated analysis workflow for this experiment, the YOLO-V5 and SSD300 objection-detection models, and the ResNet-50, EfficientNet, and MobileNetV2 image classification models were used as a representative suite of analytical machine-learning models.

Seth S Roffe↗
NASA NTRS2005

The Radiation Environment for the LISA/Laser Interferometry Space Antenna

The purpose of this document is to define the radiation environment for the evaluation of degradation due to total ionizing and non-ionizing dose and of single event effects (SEES) for the Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (LISA) instruments and spacecraft. The analysis took into account the radiation exposure for the nominal five-year mission at 20 degrees behind Earth's orbit of the sun, at 1 AU (astronomical unit) and assumes a launch date in 2014. The transfer trajectory out to final orbit has not yet been defined, therefore, this evaluation does not include the impact of passing through the Van Allen belts. Generally, transfer trajectories do not contribute significantly to degradation effects; however, single event effects and deep dielectric charging effects must be taken into consideration especially if critical maneuvers are planned during the van Allen belt passes.

Barth, Janet L.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Proton Effects and Test Issues for Satellite Designers: Ionization Effects - Section 4

This portion of the Short Course is divided into two segments to separately address the two major proton-related effects confronting satellite designers: ionization effects and displacement damage effects. While both of these topics are deeply rooted in "traditional" descriptions of space radiation effects, there are several factors at play to cause renewed concern for satellite systems being designed today. For example, emphasis on Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technologies in both commercial and government systems increases both Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and Single Event Effect (SEE) concerns. Scaling trends exacerbate the problems, especially with regard to SEEs where protons can dominate soft error rates and even cause destructive failure. In addition, proton-induced displacement damage at fluences encountered in natural space environments can cause degradation in modern bipolar circuitry as well as in many emerging electronic and opto-electronic technologies. A crude, but nevertheless telling, indication of the level of concern for proton effects follows from surveying the themes treated in papers presented at this conference. The table lists themes found in the IEEE Transaction on Nuclear Science (TNS) December issue from the past year and compares them with the December issue's content a decade earlier. Ten years ago there were nine papers, or about 10% of the total, dealing with the four indicated topics. At that time, single event effects from protons were the primary concern, and these were thought to be possible only when a nuclear reaction initiated energetic recoil atoms. This is shown in the table as the 'traditional" SEE subject. A decade later, submissions addressing this topic had doubled, while papers devoted to displacement damage studies had increased from one to nine! More importantly, displacement damage effects in the natural space environments have become a concern for degradation in modern devices (other than solar cells), and this was not so ten years earlier.

Marshall, Paul W.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Mechanisms of Heavy Ion-Induced Single Event Burnout in 4H-SiC Power MOSFETs

This describes the mechanisms behind the failure of 4H-SiC Power MOSFETs when struck by a heavy ion. The modeled device is designed to simulate a commercially available 1200 V power MOSFET and the ion simulated is a silver ion with a Linear Energy Transfer of 46 MeV-cm2/mg commonly used in single event effect (SEE) testing. The device is shown in simulation to fail near 500 V, which is in close agreement to experiments. These simulations go to show that the failure of SiC MOSFET occurs near the interface between the epi and substrate layers due to the rapid increase of the electric field in that region and destruction of the device from impact ionization. From this, two designs were proposed and investigated that would help to mitigate the electric field in these regions and improve the device's tolerance to single-event burnout (SEB). The new designs increased the voltage at which SEB occurs from 500 V to over 900 V and increased the Ron,sp by only 5%.

Mcpherson, Joseph A.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Virtex-II Pro PowerPC SEE Characterization Test Methods and Results

The Xilinx Vix-11 Pro is a platform FPGA that embeds multiple microprocessors within the fabric of an SRAM-based reprogrammable FPGA. The variety and quantity of resources provided by this family of devices make them very attractive for spaceflight applications. However,these devices will be susceptible to single event effects (SEE), which must be mitigated. Observations from prior testing of the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro suggest that the PowerPC core has significant vulnerability to SEES. However, these initial tests were not designed to exclusively target the functionality of the PowerPC, therefore making it difficult to distinguish processor upsets from fabric upsets. The main focus of this paper involves detailed SEE testing of the embedded PowerPC core. Due to the complexity of the PowerPC, various custom test applications, both static and dynamic, will be designed to isolate each Unit of the processor. Collective analysis of the test results will provide insight into the exact upset mechanism of the PowerPC. With this information, mitigations schemes can be developed and tested that address the specific susceptibilities of these devices. The test bed will be the Xilinx SEE Consortium Virtex-II Pro test board, which allows for configuration scrubbing, design triplication, and ease of data collection. Testing will be performed at the Indiana University Cyclotron Facility using protons of varying energy levels and fluencies. This paper will present the detailed test approach along with the results.

Petrick, David↗
NASA NTRS2009

Virtex-4VQ dynamic and mitigated single event upset characterization summary

This report is the result of funding by the NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program (NEPP) and the combined efforts of members within the Xilinx Radiation Test Consortium (XRTC), sometimes known as the Xilinx Single Event Effects (SEE) Test Consortium. The XRTC is a voluntary association of aerospace entities, including leading aerospace companies, universitie and national laboratories, combining resources to characterize reconfigurable, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for aerospace applications. Previous publications of Virtex-4 radiation results are for commercial (non-epitaxial) devices; see, for example, Refs. 1–5. A notable exception is Ref. 6, which presents XRTC upset measurements of storage elements in the PowerPC405s in the XQR4VFX60. This work represents a continuation of the efforts reported in the “Virtex-4QV Static SEU Characterization Summary” [7]. The contents of this report describe various Single Event Functional Interrupt (SEFI) and Single Event Upset (SEU) modes seen while dynamically exercising the clocked resources within Virtex-4 devices and the corresponding mitigation techniques related to the aforementioned observed SEFI modes.

Allen, Gregory↗
NASA NTRS2001

Updated Electronic Testbed System

As we continue to advance in exploring space frontiers, technology must also advance. The need for faster data recovery and data processing is crucial. In this, the less equipment used, and lighter that equipment is, the better. Because integrated circuits become more sensitive in high altitude, experimental verification and quantification is required. The Center for Applied Radiation Research (CARR) at Prairie View A&M University was awarded a grant by NASA to participate in the NASA ER-2 Flight Program, the APEX balloon flight program, and the Student Launch Program. These programs are to test anomalous errors in integrated circuits due to single event effects (SEE). CARR had already begun experiments characterizing the SEE behavior of high speed and high density SRAM's. The research center built a error testing system using a PC-104 computer unit, an Iomega Zip drive for storage, a test board with the components under test, and a latchup detection and reset unit. A test program was written to continuously monitor a stored data pattern in the SRAM chip and record errors. The devices under test were eight 4Mbit memory chips totaling 4Mbytes of memory. CARR was successful at obtaining data using the Electronic TestBed System (EBS) in various NASA ER-2 test flights. These series of high altitude flights of up to 70,000 feet, were effective at yielding the conditions which single event effects usually occur. However, the data received from the series of flights indicated one error per twenty-four hours. Because flight test time is very expensive, the initial design proved not to be cost effective. The need for orders of magnitude with more memory became essential. Therefore, a project which could test more memory within a given time was created. The goal of this project was not only to test more memory within a given time, but also to have a system with a faster processing speed, and which used less peripherals. This paper will describe procedures used to build an updated Electronic Testbed System.

Brewer, Kevin L.↗
NASA NTRS2021

SEE Test Report for Texas Instruments LMV7219 7 ns, 2.7 V to 5 V Comparator with Rail-to-Rail Output

The primary purpose of this testing is to characterize the Texas Instruments LMV7219 comparator for single-event latchup (SEL) susceptibility. These data will be used to assess the Single-Event Latchup (SEL) risk for the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter (OLA). A secondary goal is to assess the susceptibility of the comparator to single-event transients (SET) and other nondestructive Single-Event Effects (SEE).

Raymond Ladbury↗
NASA NTRS2012

CREME96 and Related Error Rate Prediction Methods

Predicting the rate of occurrence of single event effects (SEEs) in space requires knowledge of the radiation environment and the response of electronic devices to that environment. Several analytical models have been developed over the past 36 years to predict SEE rates. The first error rate calculations were performed by Binder, Smith and Holman. Bradford and Pickel and Blandford, in their CRIER (Cosmic-Ray-Induced-Error-Rate) analysis code introduced the basic Rectangular ParallelePiped (RPP) method for error rate calculations. For the radiation environment at the part, both made use of the Cosmic Ray LET (Linear Energy Transfer) spectra calculated by Heinrich for various absorber Depths. A more detailed model for the space radiation environment within spacecraft was developed by Adams and co-workers. This model, together with a reformulation of the RPP method published by Pickel and Blandford, was used to create the CR ME (Cosmic Ray Effects on Micro-Electronics) code. About the same time Shapiro wrote the CRUP (Cosmic Ray Upset Program) based on the RPP method published by Bradford. It was the first code to specifically take into account charge collection from outside the depletion region due to deformation of the electric field caused by the incident cosmic ray. Other early rate prediction methods and codes include the Single Event Figure of Merit, NOVICE, the Space Radiation code and the effective flux method of Binder which is the basis of the SEFA (Scott Effective Flux Approximation) model. By the early 1990s it was becoming clear that CREME and the other early models needed Revision. This revision, CREME96, was completed and released as a WWW-based tool, one of the first of its kind. The revisions in CREME96 included improved environmental models and improved models for calculating single event effects. The need for a revision of CREME also stimulated the development of the CHIME (CRRES/SPACERAD Heavy Ion Model of the Environment) and MACREE (Modeling and Analysis of Cosmic Ray Effects in Electronics). The Single Event Figure of Merit method was also revised to use the solar minimum galactic cosmic ray spectrum and extended to circular orbits down to 200 km at any inclination. More recently a series of commercial codes was developed by TRAD (Test & Radiations) which includes the OMERE code which calculates single event effects. There are other error rate prediction methods which use Monte Carlo techniques. In this chapter the analytic methods for estimating the environment within spacecraft will be discussed.

Adams, James H., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Diagnosis of NMOS DRAM functional performance as affected by a picosecond dye laser

A picosec pulsed dye laser beam was at selected wavelengths successfully used to simulate heavy-ion single-event effects (SEEs) in negative channel NMOS DRAMs. A DRAM was used to develop the test technique because bit-mapping capability and previous heavy-ion upset data were available. The present analysis is the first to establish such a correlation between laser and heavy-ion data for devices, such as the NMOS DRAM, where charge collection is dominated by long-range diffusion, which is controlled by carrier density at remote distances from a depletion region. In the latter case, penetration depth is an important parameter and is included in the present analysis. A single-pulse picosecond dye laser beam (1.5 microns diameter) focused onto a single cell component can upset a single memory cell; clusters of memory cell upsets (multiple errors) were observed when the laser energy was increased above the threshold energy. The multiple errors were analyzed as a function of the bias voltage and total energy of a single pulse. A diffusion model to distinguish the multiple upsets from the laser-induced charge agreed well with previously reported heavy ion data.

Kim, Q.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Are Current SEE Test Procedures Adequate for Modern Devices and Electronics Technologies?

Believe it or not, this has been a simplistic look at starting a checklist for SEE testing. Given a memory that has 68 operating modes, when a SEU occurs that changes the mode, just how do you determine what's going on? Laser and microbeam tests can help, but not easily for modern packaged devices. Expanding this approach to other more complex devices such as ADCs or processors as well as analog devices should be considered. The recommendation is to use the existing text standards as the starting point. Just make your own checklist for the device/technology/issues being considered. At HEART 2007, we presented some of the burgeoning challenges associated with single event effect(SEE) testing of modern commercial memories: a) Package, device complexity, test fixture, and data analysis issues were discussed; b) "Complete" SEE Characterization would take 15 years; c) Qualification test costs have a greater than 4 times increase over the last decade. In this talk, we continue to explore the roles of technology with an emphasis on the existing SEE Test Procedures and some of the concerns related to modern devices. The primary objective of the briefing is to provide some overarching guidance concerning the many considerations involved in the formulation of a SEE test plan provided in a " Checklist" format.we note that there is no such thing as a complete check list and that the best approach is to develop a flexible test plan that takes into account the device type and functions, the device technology, circuit and package design, and, of course, test facility and beam characteristics.

LaBel, Kenneth A.↗
NASA NTRS2002

REE radiation fault model: a tool for organizing and communication radiation test data and construction COTS based spacebourne computing systems

The growth in data rates of instruments on future NASA spacecraft continues to outstrip the improvement in communications bandwidth and processing capabilities of radiation-hardened computers. Sophisticated autonomous operations strategies will further increase the processing workload. Given the reductions in spacecraft size and available power, standard radiation hardened computing systems alone will not be able to address the requirements of future missions. The REE project was intended to overcome this obstacle by developing a COTS- based supercomputer suitable for use as a science and autonomy data processor in most space environments. This development required a detailed knowledge of system behavior in the presence of Single Event Effect (SEE) induced faults so that mitigation strategies could be designed to recover system level reliability while maintaining the COTS throughput advantage. The REE project has developed a suite of tools and a methodology for predicting SEU induced transient fault rates in a range of natural space environments from ground-based radiation testing of component parts. In this paper we provide an overview of this methodology and tool set with a concentration on the radiation fault model and its use in the REE system development methodology. Using test data reported elsewhere in this and other conferences, we predict upset rates for a particular COTS single board computer configuration in several space environments.

Radiation Effects Modeling COTS computers REE SEU ↗
NASA NTRS1991

The NASA Microelectronics Space Radiation Effects Program (MSREP) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The primary objective of the Microelectronics Space Radiation Effects Program (MSREP) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is to assist NASA in the selection of radiation hardened microelectronic parts for insertion in NASA space systems through radiation testing and research. Prior to presenting examples of the research and testing on Single Event Effects (SEE) and Total Ionizing Dose (TID) effects, the space radiation environment and radiation requirements for the CRAFT/Cassini program, a typical JPL space project, are discussed.

Barnes, C.↗