SEU Hardening: Incorporating an Extreme Low Power Bitcell Design (SHIELD)

Abstract

The pursuit of continuous scaling of electronic devices in the semiconductor industry has led to two unintended but significant outcomes: a rapid increase in susceptibility to radiation induced errors and an overall rise in power consumption. Operating under low voltage to reduce power only aggravates radiation related reliability issues. In this paper, a novel “SEU Hardening Incorporating Extreme Low Power Bitcell Design” (SHIELD) is proposed to attend these two major concerns simultaneously. The SHIELD bitcell tolerates upsets with charge deposits over 1 pC when operated at a scaled 700mV supply voltage utilizing a 65nm process. Simulations confirm its advantages in terms of leakage power, with more than twofold lower leakage currents than previous solutions.