Impact of Dynamic Voltage Scaling on SEU Sensitivity of COTS Bulk SRAMs and A-LPSRAMs Against Proton Radiation

In the aerospace industry, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) static random access memories (SRAMs) are a cost-effective solution for obtaining high performance at the system level, which is difficult to obtain using space-qualified components. In addition, the usage of dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) is commonly used in space environments, where low power consumption is a critical issue. This article presents an analysis of the sensitivity against single-event upsets (SEUs) of various COTS bulk SRAMs and advanced low-power SRAMs (A-LPSRAMs) against proton radiation when using DVS to save power. Experimental results will show clear evidence that the sensitivity to SEUs increases when the power is lowered. Two sets of successive technologies (130-, 90-, and 65-nm bulk SRAMs, and 150- and 110-nm A-LPSRAMs) are evaluated against 15-MeV protons and compared with results of 14-MeV neutrons presented in a previous work. Experimental data are finally compared with analytical simulations obtained by using the multiscales single-event phenomena predictive platform (MUSCA-SEP3) Monte Carlo tool to predict the effect of DVS on the SEE sensitivity on more modern technologies in the ITRS/IRDS roadmap.