California Institute of Technology

Wonjin Jang

Alain J Martin

Mika Nystroem

Jonathan A Dama

Christopher D Moore

Single Event Upset (SEU, also referred to as soft error) tolerant arbiters, bare arbiters, and filters are disclosed. An arbiter provides a filter section, and a bare arbiter, coupled to the filter section. The bare arbiter includes a redundant first input and a redundant second input, and a redundant first output and a redundant second output. A pull-down transistor in the bare arbiter conditionally overpowers a corresponding pull-up transistor in the bare arbiter when a contention condition is present in the bare arbiter.

SEU tolerant arbiter

The invention provides circuits that are tolerant to soft errors, such as a single event upset (SEU). The circuits have a chain of permitted state changes. Redundant elements, including redundant literals and assignments, are designed and implemented in the circuit. The design is such that a disruption or change of state on a single element by an SEU will not change the state flow of a circuit or lead to impermissible state changes. In one embodiment, the invention is implemented in quasi-delay-insensitive (QDI) asynchronous circuits.

Method and apparatus for providing SEU-tolerant circuits

Systems and methods for mitigating the effects of soft errors in asynchronous digital circuits. Circuits are constructed using stages comprising doubled logic elements which are connected to c-elements that compare the output states of the double logic elements. The inputs of logic elements in a stage are inhibited from changing until the outputs of the c-elements of that stage are enabled. The c-elements inhibit the propagation of a soft error by halting the operation of the circuit until the temporary effects of the soft error pass.

Growing community of inventors

Pasadena, CA, United States of America

Wonjin Jang