New Insights Into Single Event Transient Propagation in Chains of Inverters—Evidence for Propagation-Induced Pulse Broadening

A new technique for SET pulse width measurement in chains of inverters using pulsed laser irradiation

“…The first technique, already used in [12], uses a balanced buffer at the end of the inverter chain ( Figure 1a). The buffer is designed with large transistors to drive a high-impedance output without modifying the transient signal (sign, duration or amplitude).…”

“…It is also limited by the oscilloscope resolution of 1 point every 25 ps (40 GS/s). Typically, this buffer measurement technique can detect signals down to 150 ps using the currently available technology [12]. The second technique is detailed here for the first time.…”

“…Recently another technique, using a target inverter chain terminating with a high frequency buffer was presented [12]. The voltage transients were recorded at the output of the buffer by using a high-impedance probe connected to a singleshot oscilloscope.…”

“…A more elaborated technique uses the current pulse measurement of a single transistor to reconstruct the actual shape of the SET voltage transient [14,15,12]. The single transistor is irradiated in the off-state at different drain voltage to investigate the transistor response when integrated in a test circuit.…”

Double-pulse-single-event transients in combinational logic

“…The scaling of integrated circuits to feature sizes below the 100 nm technology node presents a host of challenges for circuit applications for use in a space environment due to a growing susceptibility to soft errors [1][2][3][4][5][6]. As transistor density increases on chip with each new scaled technology, the probability of a single ion causing a single-event transient (SET) in a circuit or depositing charge on multiple nodes increases [7][8].…”