Single-Event Transient Susceptibility Analysis and Evaluation Methodology for Clock Distribution Network in the Integrated Circuit Working in Real Time

Abstract

With technology scaling down, the clock distribution networks (CDNs) in integrated circuits (ICs) are increasingly vulnerable to the single-event transient (SET). The SET on the CDN can even lead to failure of the whole circuit. Therefore, it is important to evaluate in terms of SET susceptibility of the CDN. In this paper, a novel SET susceptibility analysis and evaluation methodology for CDN in any circuit is proposed. This methodology allows a more precise analysis of SET propagation in the CDN and the CDN-SET-induced incorrect latching by electrical simulations of circuits working in real time. In our simulations, injection location of the SET traverses all clock nodes on the CDN, injection time of the SET is random, and pulsewidth of the SET is random in a certain range. This can reflect more realistically and accurately how an IC works in the aerospace. Using the proposed methodology, we analyzed and evaluated the SET susceptibility of the CDN in a case circuit. The simulation results include SET propagation along the clock paths, the CDN-SET-induced incorrect data latching in the sequential elements, relative sensitivity of the clock nodes and sequential elements, and contributions of radiation-induced clock race and radiation-induced clock jitter to soft error rate of the case circuit. These results can supply information for the design of an IC with high reliability. Moreover, our methodology can be used to analyze the factors influencing the SET sensitivity of CDN, and evaluate the hardening technique for CDN.