A High-Performance Low-Power Double-Node Upset Resilient Latch for Harsh Radiation Environments

With the advancement of semiconductor technology, circuits have become increasingly susceptible to errors induced by radiation. Traditional approaches to enhancing the resilience of circuits against single-node upsets (SNUs) are insufficient to meet the robustness standards of modern designs. This article proposes a high-performance, low-power latch, named high-performance low-power double-node upset resilient latch (HLDRL), which is designed to exhibit exceptional resilience against double-node upsets (DNUs). Its design has six intricately interconnected C-elements (CEs) and two three-input CEs, for error interception, ensuring robust performance even in the case of DNUs. The Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) tool is used to validate the effectiveness of the HLDRL. Besides, comprehensive simulations are conducted utilizing the advanced SMIC 55-nm process technology. These simulation results show that our proposed HLDRL latch can autonomously recover from any DNU and thereby ensure the integrity of the system. Moreover, compared with existing DNU-resilient latches, the proposed HLDRL latch exhibits substantial improvements in terms of multiple metrics. On average, the proposed latch achieves an impressive 29.39% dynamic power saving, a remarkable 40.04% increase in speed, a notable 4.81% reduction in area, and a substantial 53.96% decrease in the power-delay–area product (PDAP). In the post-layout simulation, the proposed latch achieves a 30.39% dynamic power saving, a 36.47% increase in speed, and an impressive 52.38% decrease in PDAP. Furthermore, the proposed latch demonstrates enhanced resilience against variations in process, supply voltage, and temperature (PVT).