Soft Errors from Space to Ground: Historical Overview, Empirical Evidence, and Future Trends

Abstract

Soft errors induced by radiation, which started as a rather exotic failure mechanism causing anomalies in satellite equipment, have become one of the most challenging issues that impact the reliability of modern electronic systems, also in ground-level applications. Many efforts have been spent in the last decades to measure, model, and mitigate radiation effects, applying numerous techniques approaching the problem at various abstraction levels. This chapter presents a historical overview of the soft-error subject and treats several ``disaster stories'' from the past. Furthermore, scaling trends are discussed for the most sensitive circuit types.