HARMLESS - High Altitude Remotely Monitored Laboratory for the Evaluation of the Sensitivity to SEUs

Goals

The main goal of this project is to put in evidence the sensitivity of advanced integrated circuits and systems to the effects of natural radiation present in the environment they will operate. This was done by real-life experiments performed on existing test platforms, developed at TIMA, which benefited of the very high-altitude of various available partner’s facilities: one located in Peru: in the city of Puno, the UNA (University National of the Altiplano), located at 4000 m. And second one considered is in the city of Chilecito, norwest Argentina at 5200 m. Also, we have 2 sites in France: Pic du Midi at 2867 m and Aiguille du Midi at 3842 m.

The experiments installed at the considered high altitude sites are remotely accessible, this to allow controlling and collecting results without being present on the site. This give the possibility to largely diffuse on line these researches to the related scientific and technical communities.

Another important goal is the formation of local human resources to the development, installation, maintenance and use of this kind of experimental platforms. This allowed, during the project life, performing the preliminary steps related with the creation in the close future of a first laboratory in Latin America dealing with this important topic: the UNA university in Puno city was selected for this purpose.

The experimental results put in evidence the potential limitations of state-of-the-art error mitigation strategies, such as redundancy or error correcting and detecting codes. Identifying solutions to ensure the required fault tolerance at good cost/performance trade-off were considered in the researches performed during this project. As significant goal of this project was the diffusion of this conjecture and the obtained results to the academia and related industries, this by means of workshops and/or special sessions in international conferences.

Partners

Project coordinators at each country

• Carlos Silva Cárdenas - Pontificia Universidad Católica de Perú (PUCP) - Lima, Peru.
• Félix Palumbo - Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (CNEA), Buenos Aires - Argentina.
• José Ruzzante - Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica (CNEA), Buenos Aires - Argentina.
• Linda Viola Ehlin Caldas - Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN) - Sao José dos Campos (Brasil).
• Sophie Duzellier - Office National d'Etudes et Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA) - Toulouse (France)
• Raoul Velazco - Laboratoire TIMA, France [international coordinator].

Researchers and engineers involved

• Dr. Claudio Federico– Instituto de Estudios Avançados (IEAv) – Sao José dos Campos (Brazil).
• Dr. Guillaume Hubert – Office National d’Etudes et Recherches Aérospatiales (ONERA) – Toulouse (France)
• Research Eng. Fabrice Pancher – Laboratoire TIMA, France.

Participating institutions

• Peru: Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP), Departamento Ingeniería-Sección Ingeniería de Telecomunicaciones
• Argentina: CNEA (Comisión Nacional de Energia Atomica)
• Brasil:
  • Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN), Sao Paulo
  • Instituto de Estudos Avançados (IEAv), Sao José dos Campos
• France:
  • Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG), laboratoire TIMA (Techniques de l'Informatique et de la Microélectronique pour l'Architecture de circuits et systèmes) Grenoble
  • ONERA-DESP (Office National d'Etudes et Recherches Aérospatiales, Département d'Environnement SPatial), Toulouse

Publications and presentations at conferences & workshops

• G. Hubert, R. Velazco, C. A. Federico, A. Cheminet, C. Silva-Cardenas, L.V.E. Caldas, F. Pancher, V. Lacoste, F. Palumbo, W. Mansour, L. Artola, F. Pineda, S. Duzellier, "Continuous high-altitude measurements of cosmic ray neutrons and SEU/MCU at various locations: correlation and analyses based-on MUSCA SEP3", poster presentation at RADECS 2012, Biarritz, France, 24-28 September 2012.
• C. A. Federico, R. Velazco, F. Pancher, C. Silva-Cardenas, F. Pineda, G. Hubert, F. Palumbo, O.L. Gonçalez, W. Mansour, S. Duzellier, L. V. Caldas, Medições de nêutrons oriundos de radiação cósmica em Puno (Peru) - uma participação no projeto HARMLESS, Atividades de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento, IEAv, Vol. 5, P. 111, 2012
• R. Velazco, G. Hubert, “Retour d'expériences SEE à haute altitude: résultats et analyse”, Journées nationales RADSOL : Electronique et rayonnements naturels au niveau du sol, CNRS, Campus Gérard Mégie, Paris, 14-15 juin 2012.
• A. Cheminet, G. Hubert, V. Lacoste, R. Velazco, D. Boscher, Characterization of the neutron environment at the CERN-EU High Energy Reference Field and at the Pic du Midi, Radiation Effects on Components and Systems poster presentation at RADECS 2012, Biarritz, France, 24-28 Septembre 2012.
• G. Hubert, R. Velazco, C. A. Federico, A. Cheminet, C. Silva-Cardenas, L.V.E. Caldas, F. Pancher, V. Lacoste, F. Palumbo, W. Mansour, L. Artola, F. Pineda, S. Duzellier, Continuous high-altitude measurements of cosmic-ray neutrons and SEU/MCU at various locations: correlation and analyses based-on MUSCA SEP3, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 60, Issue 4, pp. 2818-2826, 2013.
• A. Cheminet, G. Hubert, V. Lacoste, R. Velazco, D. Boscher, Characterization of the neutron environment at the CERN-EU High Energy Reference Field and at the Pic du Midi, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 60 , Issue 4 , Part 1, 2013 , pp. 2411 - 2417
• R. Velazco, F. Pancher, C. Silva Cardenas, C. Federico, G. Hubert, J. Ruzzante, Evidences of the Sensitivity of Two SRAM Generations to Neutrons Present in the Earth´s Atmosphere: Results of the HARMLESS STIC-AMSUD Project, LATW (Latin American Test Workshop), Cordoba - Argentina, 3-5 April 2013.