2021 IEEE International Test Conference in Asia (ITC-Asia 2021)

With the continuous progress of semiconductor processes, the multiple-node upset (MNU) caused by radiation has become a major problem affecting chip reliability. To tolerate MNU, a low-cost quadruple-node-upset self-recoverable (LCQNUSR) latch is proposed in this paper, mainly consisting of six inverters and six four-input C-element (CEs), which are cross-connected to form a feedback loop. The latch make full use of the fault-tolerance property of the CEs to constitute a multi- level filtering mechanism, so that the latch provides complete quadruple-node-upset (QNU) self-recovery capability. Simulation results show that the proposed latch is not only QNU tolerant, but also self-recovering from QNU. In addition, due to the use of high-speed transmission path and clock gating techniques, the proposed latch reduces the delay-power-area product by about 88.89% compared to the latest MNU hardened latch.

soft error;latch design;quadruple-node-upset;self-recoverability;C-element