An exact, closed-form expression of the integral chord-length distribution for the calculation of single-event upsets induced by cosmic rays

This paper presents a derivation of an exact closed-form expression of the integral chord-length distribution for the calculation of single-event upsets (SEUs) in an electronic memory cell, caused by cosmic rays. Results computed for two rectangular parallelepipeds using this exact expression are compared with those computed with Bradford's (1979) semiexact expression of C(x). It is found that the values of C(x) are identical for x equal or smaller than b but are vastly different for x greater than b. Moreover, while C(x) of Bradford gives reasonably accurate values of SEU rate for certain sets of computational parameters, it gives values more than 10 times larger than the correct values for other sets of parameters.