Circuit design and modeling for soft errors

As semiconductor devices decrease in size, soft errors are becoming a major issue that must be addressed at all stages of product definition. Even before prototype silicon chips are available for measuring, modeling must be able to predict soft-error rates with reasonable accuracy. As the technology matures, circuit test sites are produced and experimentally tested to determine representative fail rates of critical SRAM and flip-flop circuits. Circuit models are then fit to these experimental results and further test-site and product circuits are designed and modeled as needed. © Copyright 2008 by International Business Machines Corporation.