Search

The development of modern process CMOS integrated circuits has reduced the feature sizes and thus the reliability of the chip continuously. First, this paper proposed two kinds of single-node upset self-recovery feedback loops with low overhead. One is called P-RFL which is composed of P-type complementary element (CP) and Clocked CP (C2P), and the other is called N-RFL which is composed of N-type complementary element (CN) and Clocked CN (C2N). Second, in order to fully tolerate triple-node upsets (TNUs), this paper presents three TNU-hardened latches: C2P-C2N, DMR-C2P and DMR-C2N. Using the blocking ability of the C-element, the outputs of two RFLs are connected to the C-element array. Therefore, when any three nodes upset at the same time, the transient pulse propagates inside the latch step by step, and disappears after being blocked by the C-element, ensuring that the TNU-hardened latches can restore to the correct logic state. HSPICE simulations show that all the three proposed latches achieve lower power, delay and APDP, compared with other six TNU-hardened latches. DMR-C2N achieves the lowest power, delay and APDP. In addition, the PVT variations analysis show that three proposed TNU-hardened latches are less sensitive to the variations of process, voltage and temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several significant advantages of memristors, such as their nano scale, fast switching speed, power efficiency and compatibility with CMOS technology, as one of the alternatives in the next generation of semiconductor storage devices. D-flip-flops (DFFs) based on the traditional CMOS process have some shortcomings, including a large area, high power, and charge leakage when scaling down. However, memristors offer a new approach to the design of DFFs with improved performance. Two simplified edge-triggered DFFs are proposed to reduce the number of devices via the Memristor-Rationed Logic (MRL) method, which utilizes the characteristic of transmitting signals in the two-stage inversion structure. In addition, two new 4-bit Linear Feedback Shift Registers (LFSRs) are designed and verified using the proposed DFFs. Compared to the partially existing LFSRs, the designed LFSRs reduce the number of devices significantly, decrease the power consumption by 32.7% and 33.3% and shorten the delay time by 34.5% and 30.7% for the NOR and NAND gates, respectively. Finally, the proposed falling-edge-triggered DFF is used to implement the major blocks of the Built-In Self-Test(BIST) circuit, and the simulation results confirm their correctness and feasibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel radiation hardened latch (namely DCTELC) that can completely tolerate single-node upsets and double-node upsets (DNUs) for high-performance applications. The latch mainly consists of a clock-gating based dual-interlocked-cell (DICE), a 2-input C-element, and a clock-gating based 2-input C-element. The latch introduces isolated nodes to tolerate DNUs and the isolated nodes have no time to float for high-performance applications. Simulation results demonstrate the complete DNU tolerance for the latch and an 86% power-area-delay product (PADP) saving on average compared with state-of-the-art DNU-tolerant latches. Moreover, compared with the existing latches of the same type, the power dissipation, silicon area, transmission delay, and PADP of the proposed latch are the smallest. • A double-node-upset completely tolerant CMOS latch design is proposed. • The latch has extremely low cost compared with the same type latches. • The latch is suitable for high-performance applications due to low delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous scaling of CMOS feature sizes, single event triple-node-upset (TNU) induced by charge sharing has become a serious reliability issue. This paper presents a low-cost triple-node-upset self-recovery latch (LC-TSL) which is composed of N-elements, P-elements and C-elements. The LC-TSL utilizes a two-dimensional feedback array composed of four rows and four columns to achieve triple-node-upset recovery. It utilizes high-speed transmission path to achieve high performance and clock-gating to reduce power consumption. The extensive simulation results show that the LC-TSL achieves high speed, low power consumption and 100% TNU recovery. Compared with the average of previous eight hardened latches, the LC-TSL reduces the delay by 78.59% and reduces the power-delay-product by 79.69%, while only increases 15.15% area overhead and 15.38% power consumption overhead. Compared with TNU self-recoverable latches, the LC-TSL is the best in terms of area, delay, and PDP. The LC-TSL achieves TNU-recovery ability and low cost overhead, and it is insensitive to voltage and temperature variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]