Patent ID: 8767444

Claim:
A method of radiation hardening a memory element having a feedback element, the method comprising: positioning a first delay in a feedback path of the feedback element, the first delay residing in a first portion of a device plane; positioning a second delay in the feedback path, the second delay coupled in series with the first delay and residing in a second portion of the device plane; and positioning a component of the memory element in a third portion of the device plane so that the first, second, and third portions of the device plane are positioned such that deposition of charge from an incident single particle cannot occur in all three portions, thereby reducing a probability that the particle traveling through the device plane would cause an upset of the memory element, wherein two of the first, second, and third portions of the device plane reside in a common trajectory zone defining where a trajectory of the particle may disable or cause a particle induced state change in two of the first delay, the second delay and the component of the memory element, and wherein one of the first, second, and third portions of the device plane is located outside of the common trajectory zone.