The principal cause of single-event upsets in low-earth orbits is trapped protons. They cause errors through secondary reactions that may be estimated with proton cross section data (a function of energy). One often finds, however, that only heavy-ion test data (a function of LET) are available. In these cases you would need additional testing to determine the proton cross section.

This module helps you avoid additional testing. It gives our best guess of the proton error rate in space using only the heavy-ion test data as input. It will be found especially useful for rapid screening of parts to determine if they are likely to be a problem. In these cases parts replacement or additional testing may be indicated.

The error rate estimate is a Monte Carlo calculation of proton interactions in the chip using fundamental nuclear cross section data. It tracks the contributions of all secondary species including alphas.