Influence of Tilted Angle on Effective Linear Energy Transfer in Single Event Effect Tests for Integrated Circuits at 130 nm Technology Node

A heavy-ion irradiation experiment is studied in digital storage cells with different design approaches in 130？nm CMOS bulk Si and silicon-on-insulator （SOI） technologies. The effectiveness of linear energy transfer （LET） with a tilted ion beam at the 130？nm technology node is obtained. Tests of tilted angles θ=0 ° , 30 ° and 60 ° with respect to the normal direction are performed under heavy-ion Kr with certain power whose LET is about 40？MeVcm 2 /mg at normal incidence. Error numbers in D flip-flop chains are used to determine their upset sensitivity at different incidence angles. It is indicated that the effective LETs for SOI and bulk Si are not exactly in inverse proportion to cosθ , furthermore the effective LET for SOI is more closely in inverse proportion to cosθ compared to bulk Si, which are also the well known behavior. It is interesting that, if we design the sample in the dual interlocked storage cell approach, the effective LET in bulk Si will look like inversely proportional to cosθ very well, which is also specifically explained.

Direct measurement of the linear energy transfer of ions in silicon for space application

The single event effect(SEE) is an important consideration in electronic devices used in space environments because it can lead to spacecraft anomalies and failures. The linear energy transfer(LET) of ions is commonly investigated in studies of SEE. The use of a thin detector is an economical way of directly measuring the LET in space. An LET telescope consists of a thin detector as the front detector(D1), along with a back detector that indicates whether D1 was penetrated. The particle radiation effect monitor(PREM) introduced in this paper is designed to categorize the LET into four bins of 0.2–0.4, 0.4–1.0, 1.0–2.0 and 2.0–20 Me V·cm^2/mg, and one integral bin of LET>20 Me V·cm^2/mg. After calibration with heavy ions and Geant4 analysis, the LET boundaries of the first four bins are determined to be 0.236, 0.479, 1.196, 2.254, and 17.551 Me V·cm^2/mg, whereas that of the integral bin is determined to be LET>14.790 Me V·cm^2/mg. The acceptances are calculated by Geant4 analysis as 0.452, 0.451, 0.476, 0.446, and 1.334, respectively. The LET accuracy is shown to depend on the thickness of D1; as D1 is made thinner, the accuracy of the measured values increases.

Sensitivity study of the SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor single event effect based on pulsed laser and technology computer-aided design simulation

The single event effect of a silicon–germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor(SiGe HBT) was thoroughly investigated. By considering the worst bias condition, the sensitive area of the proposed device was scanned with a pulsed laser.With variation of the collector bias and pulsed laser incident energy, the single event transient of the SiGe HBT was studied.Moreover, the single event transient produced by laser irradiation at a wavelength of 532 nm was more pronounced than at a wavelength of 1064 nm. Finally, the impact of the equivalent linear energy transfer of the 1064 nm pulsed laser on the single event transient was qualitatively examined by performing technology computer-aided design simulations, and a good consistency between the experimental data and the simulated outcomes was attained.

Discussion of the metric in characterizing the single-event effect induced by heavy ions

The single-event effect（SEE） is the most serious problem in space environment.The modern semiconductor technology is concerned with the feasibility of the linear energy transfer（LET） as metric in characterizing SEE induced by heavy ions.In this paper,we calibrate the detailed static random access memory（SRAM） cell structure model of an advanced field programmable gate array（FPGA） device using the computer-aided design tool,and calculate the heavy ion energy loss in multi-layer metal utilizing Geant4.Based on the heavy ion accelerator experiment and numerical simulation,it is proved that the metric of LET at the device surface,ignoring the top metal material in the advanced semiconductor device,would underestimate the SEE.In the SEE evaluation in space radiation environment the top-layers on the semiconductor device must be taken into consideration.

Charge collection of single event effects at Bragg's peak

Using Geant4 Monte Carlo code and Technology Computer-Aided Design(TCAD) simulation,energy deposition and charge collection of single event effects(SEE) are studied,which are induced by low-energy protons and α particles in small feature size devices.We analyzed charge collection of SEE especially at Bragg's peak and obtained two types of deposited energy distributions of protons and α particles at different incident energies.The two components of the total charge collected are quantified,which are due to drift current of the space charge region and current in the funnel region separately.Results explain the high soft error rate in experiments of low energy proton.