12004 mapld: 141buchner single event effects testing of the atmel ieee1355 protocol chip stephen...

1 2004 MAPLD: 141Buchner

Single Event Effects Testing of the Atmel IEEE1355 Protocol Chip

Stephen Buchner1, Mark Walter2, Moses McCall3 and Christian Poivey4

1QSS Group Inc., Lanham MD 207722Orbital Science Corp, Dulles VA 99999

3NASA-GSFC, Greenbelt MD 207714SGT-Inc, Greenbelt MD 20771


What is IEEE 1355?

• IEEE 1355 specifies the physical media and low level protocols for a family of serial interconnect systems.

• The speeds and media range from 10 Mbps to 1Gbps in both copper and optical technologies and are scalable.

• Data are transmitted between nodes via packets. Each packet consists of a header, a data section, and a CRC section (to flag errors).

• The header contains information concerning the destination node, data format, packet length, etc.

• The protocol is based on the “Seven-Layer Open System Interconnect Model”.

• Routers determine paths taken by packets through the internet.


IEEE 1355 Used in Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO)

NIC

EVE

NIC

AIA

HMI

NIC

Kalpha

NIC RF

1553 P

PSE ACS S

150 Mbps

NIC

EVE

NIC

EVE

NIC

AIA

NIC

AIA

HMI

NIC

HMI

NIC

Kalpha

NIC

KA card

NIC

IEEE1355

RF

1553 P

PSE ACS S

150 Mbps

Atmel ASICS located on NIC cards


Implementation

• Transmission protocols are controlled by an ASIC manufactured

by Atmel.

• The ASIC is implemented in a 0.6 m three-level metal CMOS

“Sea of Gates” technology (MG1RT).

• The ASIC contains logic elements, registers, memory and a

phase lock loop.

• The device is a TSS901E Atmel chip capable of running three

channels. It is mounted on a 4LINKS board that can be plugged

into a computer slot.


Radiation Effects

• Ionizing particles in space produce both total ionizing dose (TID)

degradation and single event effects (SEEs) in electronic

circuits.

• TID causes a gradual degradation in performance manifested

through increased leakage currents, slower operation and

eventually functional failure.

• SEEs can take many forms. We are concerned with single event

latchup (SEL) and single event upset (SEU). SEL may lead to

destructive failure and SEU may halt operation. The SEU is then

termed a single event functional interrupt (SEFI).


Previous Radiation Testing of Atmel Chip

• No parametric degradation up to a TID level of 40 Krad(Si).

• SEL threshold exceeds 120 MeV.cm2/mg.

• SEU testing of individual latches and memories only. Revealed a

relatively low threshold that depended on supply voltage. (Lowest

LETth = 12 MeV.cm2/mg.)

• The low LET threshold implies possible proton sensitivity.

• No SEU data for chip configured as an IEEE1355 protocol control

circuit. Therefore, presence and consequences of SEFIs not known.

Also, PLL not tested and it could exhibit a frequency dependence.


Hardware for SEE Testing

Computer A

NIC

Computer B

Extender Card

ASIC (DUT)exposed

to ion beam

ASIC notexposed

to ion beam

Threecables


Hardware for Testing

AtmelAsic

ExtenderCard


Software for SEE Testing

• Step 1. Designate Master and Slave computers.

• Step 2. Start Master before Slave.

• Step 3. Master in each channel sends a “flow control character”

to the Slave, requesting the Slave to send one byte of data

back.

• Step 4. The Slave generates a packet consisting of a “Header”

containing flow control characters followed by one byte of data

(A5). Parity bits are added to flag any errors that may arise in

the header or data parts of the packet.

• Step 5. Packet is transmitted from Slave to Master.


Irradiation Conditions

Ion LET (MeV.cm2/mg)

Cu 20.7

Kr 29.3

Xe 53.9

Au 87.4

• DUT configured to be Master and Slave.• Frequencies: 6 MHz, 80 MHz, 100 MHz, 140 MHz.• Supply voltage = 5.0 V.


Expected Errors

• Errors may occur in the packets, in either the header or data parts. This will be flagged by the extra parity bits used by the CRC. Errors in a packet can occur when the packet is temporarily stored in either one of the two FIFOs – one for transmission and one for reception.

• Errors may occur in the registers containing data used to configure the network. There are 96 such registers of which 40 can be read because they are fixed and only used once when communications are first established. The remaining 56 are dynamic and errors in those registers can cause SEFIs.

• Errors in the PLL can cause a loss of synchronization that results in a SEFI.


Results

• SEFIs observed at all LETs. However, only required a software

restart and not a full power cycle.

• No latchup observed.

• Error rate independent of frequency.

• All errors appeared only in the Master independent of whether

the DUT was configured to be the Master or the Slave. This is

because only the Master detected errors while the Slave acted

as a “dumb” terminal.


Results

• Communications were halted when one, two or three links were

dropped.

• Only 40 of the 96 registers could be monitored for SEUs. The

SEU threshold for those registers was greater than 29.3

MeV.cm2/mg

• The SEU cross-section for Link drops and Link errors is below

20 MeV.cm2/mg. The lower LET threshold is most likely due to

errors in the PLL.


Results

Master configuration

1.E-10

1.E-09

1.E-08

1.E-07

1.E-06

1.E-05

1.E-04

1.E-03

0 20 40 60 80 100

LET (MeVcm2/mg)

Xs

ec

tio

n (

cm

2 /lin

k)

link err 80 MHz

link err 100 MHz

link err 140 MHz

link drop 80 MHz

link drop 100 MHz

link drop 140 MHz


Results

Master configuration

1.E-10

1.E-09

1.E-08

1.E-07

1.E-06

1.E-05

1.E-04

1.E-03

0 20 40 60 80 100

LET (MeVcm2/mg)

Xs

ec

tio

n (

cm

2 /re

gis

ter)

reg 80 MHz

reg 100 MHz

reg 140 MHz


Summary and Conclusions

• Results of SEE testing of the Atmel ASIC 3-channel chip:– Not sensitive to SEL.– Upsets take the form of either link drops or register errors.– Error rate is not sensitive to frequency.– SEFIs require a software restart and not a power reset.– Errors have a low LET threshold, which means that the error

rate must be calculated and methods implemented to immediately initiate a software restart.

12004 mapld: 141buchner single event effects testing of the atmel ieee1355 protocol chip stephen...

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