Observations of single-event upsets in non-hardened high-density SRAMs in Sun-synchronous orbit

Author

Underwood, C.I. ; Ward, J.W. ; Dyer, C.S. ; Sims, A.J.

Author_Institution

Surrey Satellite Technol. Ltd., Surrey Univ., Guildford, UK

Volume

39

Issue

6

fYear

1992

fDate

12/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1817

Lastpage

1827

Abstract

Observations of single-event upset (SEU) activity in nonhardened static and dynamic RAMs of both low (16-kb) and high (256-kb, 1-Mb), density are presented for a family of small spacecraft in low-earth, near-polar, Sun-synchronous orbits. The observation of single-event multiple-bit upset (MBU) in these devices is discussed, and the implications of such events for error-protection coding schemes are examined. Contrary to expectations, the 1-Mb static RAMs (SRAMs) are more resilient to SEU than the 256-kb SRAMs, and one type of commercial 1-Mb SRAM shows a particularly low error rate

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; SRAM chips; aerospace instrumentation; error correction codes; ion beam effects; proton effects; radiation hardening (electronics); 1 Mbit; 16 kbit; 256 kbit; Sun-synchronous orbit; error-protection coding schemes; high-density SRAMs; multiple-bit upset; nonhardened SRAM; single-event upsets; small spacecraft; Educational institutions; Error correction codes; Payloads; Protection; Random access memory; Satellite broadcasting; Single event upset; Space technology; Space vehicles; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.211372

Filename

211372