Investigation of flux dependent sensitivity on single event effect in memory devices

Heavy-ion flux is an important experimental parameter in the ground based single event tests. The flux impact on a single event effect in different memory devices is analyzed by using GEANT4 and TCAD simulation methods. The transient radial track profile depends not only on the linear energy transfer （LET） of the incident ion, but also on the mass and energy of the ion. For the ions with the energies at the Bragg peaks, the radial charge distribution is wider when the ion LET is larger. The results extracted from the GEANT4 and TCAD simulations, together with detailed analysis of the device structure, are presented to demonstrate phenomena observed in the flux related experiment. The analysis shows that the flux effect conclusions drawn from the experiment are intrinsically connected and all indicate the mechanism that the flux effect stems from multiple ion-induced pulses functioning together and relies exquisitely on the specific response of the device.

Effects of energy deposition on mechanical properties of sodium borosilicate glass irradiated by three heavy ions: P, Kr, and Xe

Sodium borosilicate glasses are candidate materials for high-level radioactive waste vitrification;therefore, understanding the irradiation effects in model borosilicate glass is crucial. Effects of electronic energy deposition and nuclear energy deposition induced by the impact of heavy ions on the hardness and Young’s modulus of sodium borosilicate glass were investigated. The work concentrates on sodium borosilicate glasses, henceforth termed NBS1 (60.0% SiO2, 15.0% B2O3, and 25.0% Na2O in mol%). The NBS1 glasses were irradiated by P, Kr, and Xe ions with 0.3 MeV, 4 MeV, and 5 MeV, respectively. The hardness and Young’s modulus of ion-irradiated NBS1 glasses were measured by nanoindentation tests. The relationships between the evolution of the hardness, the change in the Young’s modulus of the NBS1 glasses, and the energy deposition were investigated. With the increase in the nuclear energy deposition, both the hardness and Young’s modulus of NBS1 glasses dropped exponentially and then saturated. Regardless of the ion species, the nuclear energy depositions required for the saturation of hardness and Young’s modulus were apparent at approximately 1.2 × 10^20 keV/cm^3 and 1.8 × 10^20 keV/cm^3, respectively. The dose dependency of the hardness and Young’s modulus of NBS1 glasses was consistent with previous studies by Peuget et al. Moreover, the electronic energy loss is less than 4 keV/nm, and the electronic energy deposition is less than 3.0 × 10^22 keV/cm^3 in this work. Therefore, the evolution of hardness and Young’s modulus could have been primarily induced by nuclear energy deposition.

Lattice damage in InGaN induced by swift heavy ion irradiation

The microstructural responses of In_(0.32)Ga_(0.68)N and In_(0.9)Ga_(0.1)N films to 2.25 GeV Xe ion irradiation have been investigated using x-ray diffraction,Raman scattering,ion channeling and transmission electron microscopy.It was found that the In-rich In_(0.9)Ga_(0.1)N is more susceptible to irradiation than the Ga-rich In_(0.32)Ga_(0.68)N.Xe ion irradiation with a fluence of 7×10^(11)ions·cm^(-2)leads to little damage in In_(0.32)Ga_(0.68)N but an obvious lattice expansion in In_(0.9)Ga_(0.1)N.The level of lattice disorder in In_(0.9)Ga_(0.1)N increases after irradiation,due to the huge electronic energy deposition of the incident Xe ions.However,no Xe ion tracks were observed to be formed,which is attributed to the very high velocity of 2.25 Ge V Xe ions.Point defects and/or small defect clusters are probably the dominant defect type in Xe-irradiated In_(0.9)Ga_(0.1)N.

Strategy to mitigate single event upset in 14-nm CMOS bulk FinFET technology

Three-dimensional(3 D)TCAD simulations demonstrate that reducing the distance between the well boundary and N-channel metal-oxide semiconductor(NMOS)transistor or P-channel metal-oxide semiconductor(PMOS)transistor can mitigate the cross section of single event upset(SEU)in 14-nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor(CMOS)bulk Fin FET technology.The competition of charge collection between well boundary and sensitive nodes,the enhanced restoring currents and the change of bipolar effect are responsible for the decrease of SEU cross section.Unlike dualinterlock cell(DICE)design,this approach is more effective under heavy ion irradiation of higher LET,in the presence of enough taps to ensure the rapid recovery of well potential.Besides,the feasibility of this method and its effectiveness with feature size scaling down are discussed.