Radiation-hardened d flip-flop circuit

Abstract

A flip-flop circuit is disclosed. The flip-flop circuit includes a single-input inverter, a dual -input inverter, a single-input tri-state inverter, a dual -input tri-state inverter, and two single-event transient (SET) filters. The single-input tri-state inverter receives an input signal D. The dual-input tri-state inverter includes a first input, a second input and an output, wherein the first input receives output signals from the dual-input inverter and the second input receives output signals from the dual-input inverter via the first SET filter. The output of the dual-input tri-state inverter sends output signals to a first input of the dual-input inverter and a second input of the dual-input inverter via the second SET filter. The single-input inverter receives inputs from the dual-input inverter to provide an output signal Q for the flip-flop circuit.

Description

technical field [0001] The present disclosure relates generally to electronic circuits, and more particularly to flip-flop circuits. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a radiation hardened D flip-flop circuit. Background technique [0002] Digital logic systems typically include combinational and sequential circuits. Combinational circuits are made up of logic gates whose output is determined by a current input. Combinational circuits perform operations logically represented by Boolean expressions. [0003] Sequential circuits include logic gates and storage elements called flip-flops and latches. The output of the storage element is a function of the current input and the state of the storage element based on previous input. Therefore, the output of a sequential circuit is the result of the current input and the previous input, and the operation of the sequential circuit is determined by the internal state and the timing of the input. [0004] Many in...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0004] Many integrated circuit devices with digital logic circuits are susceptible to single-event disturbances due to radiation, and conventional flip-flop circuits and latches are no exception

Additional measures can be added to conventional flip-flop circuits and latches to make them more impervious to single-event disturbances, but significant additional circuitry and space is required to provide separation of sensitive nodes

However, a large amount of additional circuitry is not desirable for implementation on aircraft and / or spacecraft, and definitely not acceptable on small technology nodes, as it would result in circuits that consume more power while taking up more silicon area

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