Comprehensive vulnerability analysis of systems exposed to SEUs via probabilistic model checking
2016 16th European Conference on Radiation and Its Effects on Components and Systems (RADECS)
This paper presents a hierarchical framework to model, analyze, and estimate micro-electronic sys... more This paper presents a hierarchical framework to model, analyze, and estimate micro-electronic systems vulnerability to soft errors due to Single Event Upsets (SEUs). A Continuous-Time Markov Chain (CTMC) model of SEUs propagation is proposed and probabilistic formal techniques are utilized to exhaustively estimate their impact on the system behavior.
Comparisons of tests using heavy ions from californium and from cyclotron
The authors present experimental equipment which allows one to perform heavy ion test on programm... more The authors present experimental equipment which allows one to perform heavy ion test on programmable integrated circuits. This equipment is used along with two different means of heavy ion simulator to perform source developed by DERTS-ONERA and the LBL 88" cyclotron. The observed discrepancies between Cf/sup 252/ and cyclotron results cast doubt on the validity of using the californium source to simulate high LET particles
Evaluation of the sensitivity of a COTS 90-nm SRAM memory at low bias voltage
2016 16th European Conference on Radiation and Its Effects on Components and Systems (RADECS), 2016
This paper presents an experimental study of the sensitivity to 14-MeV neutrons to low bias volta... more This paper presents an experimental study of the sensitivity to 14-MeV neutrons to low bias voltage of a COTS 90-nm Cypress SRAM. Experiments involving power supplies ranging from 0.5V to 3.3V are presented and discussed. These results have also been compared with cross-section and SER theoretical predictions.
The sensitivity of a circuit dedicated to fuzzy control (the WARP 2.0 from SGS-Thomson) is invest... more The sensitivity of a circuit dedicated to fuzzy control (the WARP 2.0 from SGS-Thomson) is investigated with respect to "single event upsets" caused by nuclear or space environments. The fuzzy control part of a future ESA Mars instrument deployment vehicle serves as a realistic test application. Software fault injection experiments and ground tests show the fault tolerance properties of the studied application.
e present work assesses the radiation sensitivity of an affordable and performant COTS multicore ... more e present work assesses the radiation sensitivity of an affordable and performant COTS multicore processor for noncritical avionic applications. e target device is the Epiphany E16G301 multicore manufactured in 65 nm CMOS which integrates 16 processor cores. is device was selected due to its high performance, low power consumption, and affordability, allowing general public accessing to parallel computing. Additionally, the E16G301 is the coprocessor for parallel processing of the Parallella platform, which was considered by NASA researchers for onboard health management of the DragonEye UAS. e evaluation of the device is done using quantitative theory by means of radiation experiments with 14 MeV neutrons to emulate the effects of high-energy neutrons present at avionic altitudes. Static and dynamic cross sections are obtained to evaluate the intrinsic sensitivity of the device as well as its dynamic response. Results show that the failure rate of the E16G301 running a matrix multiplication as application reaches level D of the DO-178B/C guideline, being the device well suited for minor failure conditions of avionic applications.
Internetworking approaches towards along-track segmented satellite architectures
2016 IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE), 2016
The Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE) has been pursuing the development of segmented satellite arc... more The Argentinian Space Agency (CONAE) has been pursuing the development of segmented satellite architectures as a novel strategy to reduce the cost and improve responsiveness of space access. Among the key enablers for these architectures, wireless communication is likely to be the most critical as it requires to operate on a highly dynamic, sparse and extreme environments. In this work, we analyze and derive the main specifications that a communication system for segmented architectures (CSSA) must support. In particular, we provide an abstract model to predict the access time to segmented systems to later propose a layered arrangement of the main specifications for the CSSA. Finally, we analyze by simulation a particular CSSA configuration in a simple yet representative scenario with an along-track flight formation.
Radiation tests with 15-MeV neutrons were performed in a COTS SRAM including a new memory cell de... more Radiation tests with 15-MeV neutrons were performed in a COTS SRAM including a new memory cell design combining SRAM cells and DRAM capacitors to determine if, as claimed, it is soft-error free and to estimate upper bounds for the cross-section. These tests led to cross-section values two orders of magnitude below those of typical CMOS SRAMs in the same technology node. MUSCA SEP3 simulations complement these results predicting that only high-energy neutrons (> 30 MeV) can provoke bit flips in the studied SRAMs. MUSCA SEP3 is also used to investigate the sensitivity of the studied SRAM to radioactive contamination and to compare it with the one of standard CMOS SRAMs. Results are useful to make predictions about the operation of this memory in environments such as avionics.
In this paper are described measurements at highaltitude of both radiation environment and effect... more In this paper are described measurements at highaltitude of both radiation environment and effects. These measurements integrate cosmic ray neutrons and SEU/MCU on nano-scales devices. Results obtained at Pic-du-Midi are presented and analyzed. Analyses based-on MUSCA SEP 3 calculations shows a good agreement between experimental data and modeling, thus illustrating the importance of the knowledge of the radiative field for a reliable prediction.
Cristiana Bolchini, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Glenn Chapman, Simon Fraser University, Canada Y... more Cristiana Bolchini, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Glenn Chapman, Simon Fraser University, Canada Yoon-Hwa Choi, Hongik University, Korea Michele Favalli, U. of Ferrara, Italy Joan Figueras, Univ. Polit. Catalunya, Spain Eiji Fujiwara, Tokyo Inst. of Tech., Japan Masaru Fukushi, Tohoku University, Japan Dimitris Gizopoulos, University of Piraeus, Greece Said Hamdioui, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Chih Tsun Huang, Nat'l Tsing Hua U., Taiwan Hideo Ito, Chiba University, Japan Abhijit Jas, Intel, USA Wen-Ben Jone, University of Cincinnati, USA ...
This work presents probabilistic methods for testability analysis at RTL and their use to evaluat... more This work presents probabilistic methods for testability analysis at RTL and their use to evaluate the sensitivity of a digital circuit to Single Event Upsets (SEUs). A new probabilistic testability metric is proposed, in order to evaluate if the possible changes caused by SEUs are ignored or propagated by the dynamic behavior of the circuit. The new metric, event detectability, is defined based on the recently proposed event observability metric combined with the controllability. A methodology for error rate prediction based on the new metric is proposed. The testability analysis methods were implemented in a tool (ASCOPA) that takes as input a Verilog RTL description, solves the Chapman-Kolmogorov equations that describe the steady-state of the circuit, and outputs the computed values for the testability metrics. The proposed metric is used to obtain the relation between the static and the dynamic SEUs cross-section for ITC'99 benchmark circuits. It is shown that the error probability, for the b04 benchmark, can be 50% reduced using only 1/3 of radiationhardened registers.
Performance impact of various SEE mechanisms in classical analog-to-digital converter architectures
An original methodology is presented for characterizing SEE impact on ADCs performance parameters... more An original methodology is presented for characterizing SEE impact on ADCs performance parameters. Events produced by a pulsed laser and heavy ions are analyzed with an ADC testing dedicated software coupled with the THESIC+ tester.
Error rate issued from a multiple upset injection method with realistic time distribution: A case study
This paper presents a new fault injection method based on the CEU (Code Emulated Upsets) strategy... more This paper presents a new fault injection method based on the CEU (Code Emulated Upsets) strategy that simulates the consequences of SEUs (Single Event Upsets) in complex digital circuits such as processors, observed in radiation ground test experiments. Multiple upsets are injected during the program execution at instants following the probability distribution obtained from radiation static tests. Upsets are injected in all accessible targets of the studied processor (registers, internal memories, cache memories) with minimum intrusiveness, using an interrupt mechanism. The proposed approach was validated on a 64-bits MIPS processor. Fault injection campaigns evaluated both the impact on the errors occurring in the data cache and the efficiency of a software implemented fault tolerance technique.
Validation of a SEU simulation technique for a rad
56th International Astronautical Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the International Institute of Space Law, 2005
Single event upsets simulations on neural networks
This paper investigates the tolerance of Artificial Neural Networks with respect to a particular ... more This paper investigates the tolerance of Artificial Neural Networks with respect to a particular type of fault, so called Single Event Upset (SEU), induced by harsh environments. SEU faults result in the inversion of the content of a memory cell as a consequence of the impact of a charged particle with sensitive regions of an integrated circuit, and can potentially affect any of the registers, flip-flops or memory cells of the circuit. SEU like faults were injected in a software model of an Artificial Neural Network devoted to the detection of a particular phenomenon, called "protonic or electronic whistlers", perturbing the operation of electronic equipments on board spacecrafts. Two versions of the tested ANN have been experimented as well as two different data formats. Obtained results showed that ANNs tolerate a high percent of SEU-like faults, making the ANN approach and the corresponding dedicated circuits suitable to space applications.
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Papers by Raoul Velazco