The Effect of Negative Feedback on Single Event Transient Propagation in Digital Circuits

Propagation and attenuation of Single Event Transient (SET) pulses in combinational logic circuits are examined. A Miller feedback mechanism that affects the minimum pulse width needed for SET propagation in combinational logic circuits is identified. Analytical models that are commonly employed to predict the combinational Soft Error Rate (SER) of future integrated circuit (IC) technologies do not include this feedback effect. Inclusion of this effect increases the critical charge required for SET propagation through a combinational logic circuit by more than 30%. This feedback phenomenon reduces the estimated SER, which is sensitive to changes in critical charge, by more than 40%