Accurate SER Estimation by Transform Matrix Analysis for Fault Tolerant Circuits Design

Abstract

As the transistor sizes continue to shrink, quantum effects will significantly affect the circuit behavior. The inherent unreliability of nano-electronics will have significantly impact on the way of circuits design, so defects and faults of nano-scale circuit technologies have to be taken into account early in the design of digital systems. Fault-tolerant architectures may become a necessity to ensure that the underlying circuit could function properly. In CAD software, a same logic can be made out with different circuits but different design methodology can reach different soft error tolerance ability, so we must find a way to estimate the error rate of the circuit efficiently to make the design more fault tolerant. In this paper, a new way to fault tolerance design in nano-scale circuit by accurate soft error rate (SER) estimation is proposed. Transform matrix is used for SER computation and a design criteria is then proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed transform matrix model is effective for nano-scale circuits and the criteria delivered is suitable CAD tools development in nano-system design.