R. Koga et al., ION-INDUCED CHARGE COLLECTION AND SEU SENSITIVITY OF EMITTER COUPLED LOGIC (ECL) DEVICES, IEEE transactions on nuclear science, 42(6), 1995, pp. 1823-1828
This paper presents single event upset (SEU) and latchup test results
for selected Emitter Coupled Logic (ECL) microcircuits, including seve
ral types of low capacity SRAMs and other memory devices. The high spe
ed of ECL memory devices makes them attractive for use in space applic
ations. However, the emitter coupled transistor design increases susce
ptibility to radiation induced functional errors, especially SEU, beca
use the transistors are not saturated, unlike the transistors in a CMO
S device. Charge collection at the sensitive nodes in ECL memory eleme
nts differs accordingly. These differences are responsible, in part, f
or the heightened SEU vulnerability of ECL memory devices relative to
their CMOS counterparts.