Which of the following is a method to mitigate single-event effects (SEE) in SEW hardware design?

• A. Rely on redundancy and error-correction only
• B. Use shielding and total ionizing dose (TID) hardening
• C. Remove redundancy
• D. Use unshielded commodity parts

Answer: (B)

Single-event effects arise when a high-energy particle deposits charge in a device, causing upsets or latch-up. Mitigating SEE involves both reducing the particle flux reaching the circuitry and making the circuit itself less susceptible to those events. Shielding physically blocks or attenuates particles, lowering the SEE rate by reducing how many particles reach sensitive regions. TID hardening designs the device to tolerate ionizing dose and minimize charge buildup and threshold shifts, which helps devices resist upset and latch-up during radiation exposure. Together, shielding and TID hardening address the root vulnerability rather than just catching errors after they occur. Relying only on redundancy and error correction can detect and recover from some errors but may miss or be insufficient for certain SEE scenarios, and removing redundancy or using unshielded parts would increase vulnerability.