Pulsed Laser SEU Cross-Section measurement using coincidence detectors

This work presents the determination of a Pulsed Laser SEU Cross-Section (Count Statistics). In this work, a coincidence detector has been used to count fault events by comparing the digital VLSI circuit under test with a replica of the design running on a control FPGA. A SEU is declared when a specific fault pattern is detected. The target chip design generates specific fault patterns under pulsed laser shinning. Sweeping the laser energy on a flip flop of a Shift Register, data for a cross section analysis it is obtained. The coincidence detector was previously tested in a preliminary radiation test, so all the lessons learned in the design of radiation test can be translated for future works. In this work it has been used the pulsed laser facilities of Spanish National Laser Center in Salamanca.