The text below is taken from the article Profiles in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science by Vivian Cooper-Capps, Vanderbilt University.

Engineers have grappled for decades with the problem of how to protect sensitive integrated circuitry from radiation in space, but the problem is getting more complicated as computer components continue to scale down in size. In fact, the ongoing miniaturization of computer circuits is making computers more vulnerable to radiation even on earth itself.

Vanderbilt radiation-effects engineering determine ways to protect integrated circuits and semiconductor devices from radiation by studying radiation effects in the laboratory and by computer modeling and simulations. They are scrutinizing radiation effects from both single-event (cosmic ray) and total-dose radiation phenomena.

Total-dose radiation is caused by bombardment over time of subatomic particles, which are emitted from a variety of sources. The accumulated effect of the radiation degrades performance and can ultimately destroy the computer. Single-event radiation is due to isolated strikes by ionized particles, such as cosmic ions. The effect on a computer is localized and transient.

Simply surrounding the computer with some sort of radiation-stopping shield isn't a good enough answer to the problem. Shielding material that is dense enough to stop the radiation is also too heavy, certainly for space and defense equipment. Instead, ISDE researchers are exploring and developing a variety of approaches to make integrated circuits and microelectronics devices resilient to radiation.

One strategy is to incorporate back-up transistors within the integrated circuits, so that if one part fails, the component itself wills till work. Since adding transistors adds to the system complexity, slows it down, and increases manufacturing costs, the engineers are evaluating which devices within the complex circuitry are most critical to the mission and must vulnerable to radiation.

ISDE engineers are also developing ways to design for hardness, so that commercial chip fabrication can produce them without changing the fabrication process. The new techniques will be applied to a variety of applications, ranging from inertial guidance systems for the military to communications systems on satellites.