What is Soft error?

A temporary flip of data stored in memory or flip-flops caused by neutrons from cosmic rays, alpha particles and the like. The device is not damaged, so rewriting restores correct operation.

Field: Reliability

Soft error in the explanations

Questions that mention Soft error (3)

  1. Which correctly describes a soft error in memory?
  2. In which environment is the rate of soft errors caused by cosmic-ray neutrons higher?
  3. To evaluate susceptibility to soft errors caused by cosmic-ray neutrons, which method measures quickly by applying neutrons far more intense than in the real environment?

Related terms

ECC (error-correcting code) Arrhenius model Bathtub curve Electromigration ESD (electrostatic discharge) FIT rate Hot carrier injection (HCI) Latch-up MTTF (mean time to failure) NBTI (negative bias temperature instability)

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