Frequency dependence of soft error rates for sub-micron CMOS technologies

Author

Seifert, N. ; Xiaowei Zhu ; Moyer, D. ; Mueller, R. ; Hokinson, R. ; Leland, N. ; Shade, M. ; Massengill, L.

Author_Institution

Compaq Comput. Corp., Shrewsbury, MA, USA

fYear

2001

fDate

2-5 Dec. 2001

Abstract

The cycle time dependence of the alpha-particle induced soft error rate (SER) of the 21164 Alpha microprocessor has been investigated. The results of our studies suggest that the SER of the core logic decreases with increasing clock frequency and is dominated by contributions from dynamic latch nodes, whereas the SER of the caches tends to increase with frequency. This has important implications for the overall SER trend as technology moves towards higher frequencies.

Keywords

CMOS digital integrated circuits; CMOS integrated circuits; alpha-particle effects; errors; failure analysis; integrated circuit technology; microprocessor chips; probability; 21164 Alpha microprocessor; SEU; accelerated soft error testing; alpha-particle induced SER; caches; clock frequency; core logic; cycle time dependence; dynamic latch nodes; frequency dependence; single event upsets; soft error rate; submicron CMOS technologies; Alpha particles; CMOS technology; Circuits; Clocks; Equations; Error analysis; Frequency dependence; Logic arrays; Microprocessors; Single event upset;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices Meeting, 2001. IEDM '01. Technical Digest. International

Conference_Location

Washington, DC, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7050-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEDM.2001.979501

Filename

979501