STMicroelectronics Inc. (ST, Geneva, Switzerland) announced a new semiconductor technology that virtually eliminates the potential problem of the growing vulnerability of silicon chips to so-called "soft errors". The new rSRAM technology delivers greatly increased immunity to the effects of stray atomic particles without incurring significant cost or performance penalties.
The solution does not significantly increase the silicon area occupied by the integrated circuit. These circuits are
always manufactured in parallel, with as many circuits as possible fitted onto a thin wafer of silicon, typically 200mm in diameter (currently moving to 300mm). ST has fabricated test chips in 120nm technology (which will be the next technology generation to enter mass production) using the new rSRAM cells and subjected them to aggressive testing, which involves bombarding them with high levels of artificial radiation and measuring the resulting soft error rate.
