ABSTRACT
Predicting the rate of occurrence of single event effects (SEEs) in space requires knowledge of the radiation environment and the response of electronic devices to that environment. Several analytical models have been developed over the past 36 years to predict SEE rates. The first error rate calculations were performed by Binder et al. [1], Bradford [2,3], and Pickel and Blandford, in their cosmic ray–induced error rate (CRIER) analysis code [4,5], which introduced the basic rectangular parallelepiped (RPP) method for error rate calculations. For the radiation environment at the part, [2,3,5] made use of the cosmic ray linear energy transfer (LET) spectra calculated by Heinrich for various absorber depths [6]. A more detailed model for the space radiation environment within spacecraft was developed by Adams and coworkers [7–14]. This model, together with a reformulation of the RPP method published by Pickel and Blandford [5], was used to create the cosmic ray effects on microelectronics (CRÈME) code [15,16]. About the same time, Shapiro wrote the cosmic ray upset program (CRUP) [17] based on the RPP method published by Bradford [2]. It was the first code to specifically take into account charge collection from outside the depletion region due to deformation of the electric field caused by the incident cosmic ray. Other early rate prediction methods and codes include the single event figure of merit (FoM) [18], NOVICE [19], the space radiation code [20], and the effective flux method of Binder [21] which is the basis of the Scott effective flux approximation (SEFA) model [22].
