Proton-induced radiation effects in the I/O blocks of an SRAM-based FPGA

Abstract

This work presents an experimental study of the proton-induced failures in the Input/Output blocks and in the associated configuration of an SRAM-based Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) using a single inverter ring oscillator-configuration. The tests have been done on the KINTEX-7 FPGAs, which were exposed to a 35 MeV proton beam. The cross-sections for 3 classes of single-event effects—in an I/O user logic with a low configuration memory usage of less than 1%—have been determined to be: 2.22−1+1.4 ⋅ 10−11 cm2/device, 1.53 ⋅ 10−11 cm2/device (the upper limit) and 0.97−0.6+1 ⋅ 10−11 cm2/device, respectively. The conclusions and the probable impact of the results on the end-application are presented.