Thesis defense of Leonardo Heitich Brendler - December 15th, 2023

Leonardo HEITICH BRENDLER will defend his thesis on December 15th, 2023 at 15:00 pm, (Auditorium 0, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500 – Agronomia, Porto Alegre – RS, 91509-900) on the subject : “Memory circuit hardening to Multiple-Cell Upsets”.

In the evolving era of space exploration marked by a surge in satellites and significant cost reductions, memory circuits play a crucial role in space applications. However, the escalating number of Multiple-Cell Upsets (MCUs) challenges traditional techniques in maintaining circuit robustness. This thesis introduces a novel approach to address MCUs in Static Random-Access Memories (SRAMs) for space applications. The method involves spatially interleaving a memory plan with radiation detectors and a logic circuit generating an alarm signal upon detecting radiation-induced particles. The study includes the fabrication and testing of a prototype circuit using 350 nm CMOS technology and the design of a 32 kb interleaved data/detection SRAM in 28 nm FD-SOI technology. The results confirm the method’s effectiveness in detecting single and multiple events, showcasing its adaptability and potential for high MCU detection probability. The proposed method’s customizable nature allows variations in added detection cells to balance robustness and overheads. Additionally, an automated tool for generating the layout of a radiation-hardened SRAM core enhances the method’s practical application. The new challenges arising from the increase in the MCU rate in modern nodes benefit the new method validated in this thesis because, with the increase in the number of events in a memory plan, the probability of detecting an event also increases.