Mitigation Methods for Soft-Errors and Related Phenomena in Spacecraft

Energetic particles in space produce soft errors and other effects in microelectronics. Methods to deal with this include error detection and correction, power cycling, and operational methods. This paper discusses these techniques, including real examples where they have been applied, along with cases where unexpected responses have caused electronic malfunctions.

Allan Johnston

Allan Johnston received the B.S. and M.S. in physics from the University of Washington. He is currently a Principal Engineer/Supervisor at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he directs research and space system studies on the effects of radiation on micoelectronics and optoelectronics. Before joining JPL he spent several years at Boeing Aerospace, performing research studies on radiation effects for aerospace applications. He is the author or coauthor of more than 100 refereed publications, and invited papers at the 1997 and 2002 RADECS conferences, as well as short courses at the 1980 and 2000 Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conferences. He received the Outstanding Paper Award at the 1999 NSREC. He served as Technical Program Chairman for the 1997 NSREC, and is Conference Chairman for that conference in 2003. Mr. Johnston is a Fellow of the IEEE.