Efficient Fault Detection Architecture Design of Latch-Based Low Power DSP/MCU Processor

Soft errors have been emerged as an important reliability concern of modern ICs. In this work we have implemented an efficient error detection scheme in a low power DSP/MCU processor. Our scheme achieves high error detection efficiency at low hardware cost by means of an original combination of double-sampling and latch based-design into the so-called GRAAL architecture. The implementation of our design in 65nm and 45nm process nodes has confirmed the advantages of the GRAAL architecture: low area and power penalties and negligible performance degradation. Its high error detection efficiency was demonstrated by performing extensive simulations of single-event transients (SETs).