SINGLE EVENT EFFECTS IN AVIONICS AND ON THE GROUND

Abstract

Single event effects in electronics caused by the atmospheric neutrons have been an issue for systems using large blocks of random access memory (RAM) in avionics applications as well as those on the ground. At ground level there are two main sources of single event effects, alpha particles from the packaging materials as well as the neutrons, but at aircraft altitudes, where the neutron flux is about 300 times higher than the ground, the alpha particles make a negligible contribution. We review the trends over the last 5-10 years in the response of COTS computer systems to single event effects, taking into the response of devices as well as fault tolerant measures incorporated into the systems.