The Impact of Electromagnetic Interference Generated by Electrostatic Discharge on Microcontroller Performance under Temperature Exposure in a TEM Cell

This paper presented the results of a study on the noise immunity of microcontrollers
$(\mu \mathrm{C})$
to electrostatic discharge (ESD) in a Transverse Electromagnetic (TEM) cell under temperature effects. ESD was induced from an imitator into the input of the TEM cell placed inside a heat-cold chamber with temperatures ranging from
$-50^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$
to
$105^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$
. We developed a technique for joint temperature and electromagnetic exposure to detect failures in the
$\mu \mathrm{C}$
. We designed test tasks that took into account changes in
$\mu \mathrm{C}$
system frequency, temperature conditions, and various external parameters. This allowed us to assess the stability of the
$\mu \mathrm{C}$
under different computational loads. The test results showed that ESD induced changes in the values of the backup registers at temperatures of
$-50^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$
and
$105^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$
, while no changes were observed at normal temperatures
$(20^{\circ}\mathrm{C})$
. We recorded changes in the values of the
$\mu \mathrm{C}$
backup registers under test tasks with clocking frequencies of 8, 64, and 72 MHz at temperatures of
$105^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$
and
$-50^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$
, respectively. We found that at boundary temperatures, the most sensitive
$\mu \mathrm{C}$
blocks were the arithmetic logic unit, timers,
$\text{input}/\text{output}$
ports, and analog-to-digital converter. The study revealed that the electromagnetic radiation generated by ESD, together with temperature effects, leads to a change in the data in the backup register at different loads on the
$\mu \mathrm{C}$
under study.