Abstract: The sensitivity of complex integrated circuits to single-event effects is investigated. Sensitivity depends not only on the cross section of physical modules but also on the behavior of data patterns running on the system. A method dividing the main functional modules is proposed. The intrinsic cross section and the duty cycles of different sensitive modules are obtained during the execution of data patterns. A method for extracting the duty cycle is presented and a set of test patterns with different duty cycles are implemented experimentally. By combining the intrinsic cross section and the duty cycle of different sensitive modules, a universal method to predict SEE sensitivities of different test patterns is proposed, which is verified by experiments based on the target circuit of a microprocessor. Experimental results show that the deviation between prediction and experiment is less than 20%.

Key words: complex ICs, duty cycle, prediction of cross section, prediction techniques