Ionizing radiation effects on a COTS low-cost RISC microcontroller

Electronic systems functionality degrades when these systems are operating in harsh environments such as those where they are exposed to ionizing radiation. Understanding and measuring these effects is extremely important in order to design systems that can operate reliably. This work discusses experimental data of heavy ion and x-ray radiation effects on a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) low-cost microprocessor. The heavy ions test results suggest that, in this technology, the SRAM is more sensitive to SEE than flash memory. Ions with a LET higher than 5 MeV/mg/cm 2 may disrupt the device's proper operation.