DAMSEL—Dynamic and Applicative Measurement of Single Events in Logic

Abstract

This paper describes a circuit called dynamic and applicative measurement of single events in logic (DAMSEL), which can individually measure the impact of single event upsets and single-event transients (SETs) in realistic, synchronous digital circuits. Heavy-ion and pulsed laser test results are presented. Both a simple digital and an analog simulation methodology are demonstrated to provide similar cross sections to those observed during the tests. Overall, the DAMSEL structure has many advantages over current circuits used for measuring SETs, including the ease with which test results can be extrapolated to real designs.