With the advent of high-density low-power sub-20nm technology processes and circuits with tens-of-billions of transistors, radiation-induced single-event effects present a new set of design challenges for terrestrial applications. Developing reliable single-event effect resilient microelectronics in these modern technology nodes is a resource and time-intensive endeavor that further requires validation after fabrication. There are significant risks and costs involved in efficiently balancing radiation effects resiliency without losing performance benefits of the new technology nodes. Current analysis tools are not suited to performing the necessary single-event effect resiliency assessment on a scale appropriate for typical modern and future design sizes. With an approach involving current tools, computational requirements are intractable for anything larger than a very small design. Lucid Circuit is developing solutions for designs of all sizes in the form of a Radiation Susceptibility Analysis & Prediction platform or RSAPTM (patent pending). Our approach will help designers implement radiation effects resilient and technology optimized microelectronics in a cost effective manner with limited impact on schedules.
