X-Ray-Induced Upsets in a Xilinx Spartan 3E FPGA

As the use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) in space and in other strategic areas increases, concerns about their tolerance to radiation also increases. This work reports the observation of soft and hard errors in a Xilinx Spartan-3E commercial off-the-shelf FPGA when exposed to low-dose rate, low energy X-rays during a dynamic test in which a LEON 3 soft-core processor was mapped in the FPGA.