Single-event effect (SEE)
Beginner
What happens when one fast particle hits a chip: a flipped bit, a glitch, or worse.
Novice
Any effect caused by the electric charge one particle leaves behind as it passes through a chip. Some are harmless once fixed, like a flipped bit or a brief glitch; others, like latch-up, can destroy the chip.
Expert
Measured in a beam test as a cross-section (errors divided by particles per cm²) at several values of LET, the energy a particle deposits per unit of path length. Combining that curve with an orbit’s particle population predicts an event rate per device per day.
Explained in Space (Industries).
See also: Single-event upset (SEU), Single-event transient (SET), Single-event latch-up (SEL), Single-event functional interrupt (SEFI).