Total ionizing dose effect modeling method for CMOS digital-integrated circuit

Simulating the total ionizing dose(TID)of an electrical system using transistor-level models can be difficult and expensive,particularly for digital-integrated circuits(ICs).In this study,a method for modeling TID effects in complementary metaloxide semiconductor(CMOS)digital ICs based on the input/output buffer information specification(IBIS)was proposed.The digital IC was first divided into three parts based on its internal structure:the input buffer,output buffer,and functional area.Each of these three parts was separately modeled.Using the IBIS model,the transistor V-I characteristic curves of the buffers were processed,and the physical parameters were extracted and modeled using VHDL-AMS.In the functional area,logic functions were modeled in VHDL according to the data sheet.A golden digital IC model was developed by combining the input buffer,output buffer,and functional area models.Furthermore,the golden ratio was reconstructed based on TID experimental data,enabling the assessment of TID effects on the threshold voltage,carrier mobility,and time series of the digital IC.TID experiments were conducted using a CMOS non-inverting multiplexer,NC7SZ157,and the results were compared with the simulation results,which showed that the relative errors were less than 2%at each dose point.This confirms the practicality and accuracy of the proposed modeling method.The TID effect model for digital ICs developed using this modeling technique includes both the logical function of the IC and changes in electrical properties and functional degradation impacted by TID,which has potential applications in the design of radiation-hardening tolerance in digital ICs.

Total Ionizing Dose Radiation Effects on MOS Transistors with Different Layouts

Both nMOS and pMOS transistors with two-edged and multi-finger layouts are fabricated in a standard commercial 0.6μm CMOS/bulk process to study their total ionizing dose （TID） radiation effects. The leakage current, threshold voltage shift, and transconductance of the devices are monitored before and after T-ray irradiation. Different device bias conditions are used during irradiation. The experiment results show that TID radiation effects on nMOS devices are very sensitive to their layout structures. The impact of the layout on TID effects on pMOS devices is slight and can be neglected.

Synergistic effect of total ionizing dose on single-event gate rupture in SiC power MOSFETs

The synergistic effect of total ionizing dose(TID) and single event gate rupture(SEGR) in SiC power metal–oxide–semiconductor field effect transistors(MOSFETs) is investigated via simulation. The device is found to be more sensitive to SEGR with TID increasing, especially at higher temperature. The microscopic mechanism is revealed to be the increased trapped charges induced by TID and subsequent enhancement of electric field intensity inside the oxide layer.

Machine learning-based analyses for total ionizing dose effects in bipolar junction transistors

Machine learning methods have proven to be powerful in various research fields.In this paper,we show that research on radiation effects could benefit from such methods and present a machine learning-based scientific discovery approach.The total ionizing dose(TID)effects usually cause gain degradation of bipolar junction transistors(BJTs),leading to functional failures of bipolar integrated circuits.Currently,many experiments of TID effects on BJTs have been conducted at different laboratories worldwide,producing a large amount of experimental data which provides a wealth of information.However,it is difficult to utilize these data effectively.In this study,we proposed a new artificial neural network(ANN)approach to analyze the experimental data of TID effects on BJTs An ANN model was built and trained using data collected from different experiments.The results indicate that the proposed ANN model has advantages in capturing nonlinear correlations and predicting the data.The trained ANN model suggests that the TID hardness of a BJT tends to increase with base current I.A possible cause for this finding was analyzed and confirmed through irradiation experiments.

Synergistic effects of total ionizing dose and radiated electromagnetic interference on analog-to-digital converter

The influence of combined total ionization dose(TID)and radiated electromagnetic interference(EMI)in a commercial analog-to-digital converter(ADC)was studied.The degradation of the direct-current response,the static parameters,and the dynamic parameters caused by the TID and EMI separately and synergistically is presented.The experimental results demonstrate that the increase in TID intensifies data error and the signal-tonoise ratio(SNR)degradation caused by radiated EMI.The cumulative distribution function of EMI failure with respect to data error and SNR with different TIDs was extracted.The decreasing trend of the threshold was acquired with a small sample size of five for each TID group.The result indicates that the ADC is more sensitive in a compound radiation environment.

Total ionizing dose and synergistic effects of magnetoresistive random-access memory

A magnetoresistive random-access memory(MRAM) device was irradiated by ^(60) Co c-rays and an electron beam.The synergistic effect of this on the MRAM was tested with an additional magnetic field during irradiation,from which the total ionizing dose(TID) and the synergistic damage mechanism of MRAM were analyzed.In addition,DC,AC,and functional parameters of the memory were tested under irradiation and annealing via a very large-scale integrated circuit test system.The radiation-sensitive parameters were obtained through analyzing the data.Because of the magnetic field applied on the MRAM while testing the synergistic effects,shallow trench isolation leakage and Frenkel–Poole emission due to synergistic effects were smaller than that of TID,and hence radiation damage of the synergistic effects was also lower.

Study of total ionizing dose radiation effects on enclosed gate transistors in a commercial CMOS technology

This paper studies the total ionizing dose radiation effects on MOS （metal-oxide-semiconductor） transistors with normal and enclosed gate layout in a standard commercial CMOS （compensate MOS） bulk process. The leakage current, threshold voltage shift, and transconductance of the devices were monitored before and after γ-ray irradiation. The parameters of the devices with different layout under different bias condition during irradiation at different total dose are investigated. The results show that the enclosed layout not only effectively eliminates the leakage but also improves the performance of threshold voltage and transconductance for NMOS （n-type channel MOS） transistors. The experimental results also indicate that analogue bias during irradiation is the worst case for enclosed gate NMOS. There is no evident different behaviour observed between normal PMOS （p-type channel MOS） transistors and enclosed gate PMOS transistors.

Synergistic effects of total ionizing dose on single event upset sensitivity in static random access memory under proton irradiation

Synergistic effects of the total ionizing dose （TID） on the single event upset （SEU） sensitivity in static random access memories （SRAMs） were studied by using protons. The total dose was cumulated with high flux protons during the TID exposure, and the SEU cross section was tested with low flux protons at several cumulated dose steps. Because of the radiation-induced off-state leakage current increase of the CMOS transistors, the noise margin became asymmetric and the memory imprint effect was observed.

Total Ionizing Dose Radiation Effects in the P-Type Polycrystalline Silicon Thin Film Transistors

The total ionizing dose radiation effects in the polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors are studied. Transfer characteristics, high-frequency capacitance-voltage curves and low-frequency noises (LFN) are measured before and after radiation. The experimental results show that threshold voltage and hole-field-effect mobility decrease, while sub-threshold swing and low-frequency noise increase with the increase of the total dose. The contributions of radiation induced interface states and oxide trapped charges to the shift of threshold voltage are also estimated. Furthermore, spatial distributions of oxide trapped charges before and after radiation are extracted based on the LFN measurements.

Dynamic modeling of total ionizing dose-induced threshold voltage shifts in MOS devices

The total ionizing dose(TID) effect is a key cause for the degradation/failure of semiconductor device performance under energetic-particle irradiation. We developed a dynamic model of mobile particles and defects by solving the rate equations and Poisson's equation simultaneously, to understand threshold voltage shifts induced by TID in silicon-based metal–oxide–semiconductor(MOS) devices. The calculated charged defect distribution and corresponding electric field under different TIDs are consistent with experiments. TID changes the electric field at the Si/SiO_(2) interface by inducing the accumulation of oxide charged defects nearby, thus shifting the threshold voltage accordingly. With increasing TID, the oxide charged defects increase to saturation, and the electric field increases following the universal 2/3 power law. Through analyzing the influence of TID on the interfacial electric field by different factors, we recommend that the radiation-hardened performance of devices can be improved by choosing a thin oxide layer with high permittivity and under high gate voltages.

Synergistic effect of total ionizing dose on single event effect induced by pulsed laser microbeam on SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor

The synergistic effect of total ionizing dose（TID） on single event effect（SEE） in SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor（HBT） is investigated in a series of experiments. The SiGe HBTs after being exposed to 60 Co g irradiation are struck by pulsed laser to simulate SEE. The SEE transient currents and collected charges of the un-irradiated device are compared with those of the devices which are irradiated at high and low dose rate with various biases. The results show that the SEE damage to un-irradiated device is more serious than that to irradiated SiGe HBT at a low applied voltage of laser test. In addition, the g irradiations at forward and all-grounded bias have an obvious influence on SEE in the SiGe HBT, but the synergistic effect after cutting off the g irradiation is not significant. The influence of positive oxide-trap charges induced by TID on the distortion of electric field in SEE is the major factor of the synergistic effect. Moreover, the recombination of interface traps also plays a role in charge collection.

Suppressing the hot carrier injection degradation rate in total ionizing dose effect hardened nMOSFETs

Annular gate nMOSFETs are frequently used in spaceborne integrated circuits due to their intrinsic good capability of resisting total ionizing dose （TID） effect. However, their capability of resisting the hot carrier effect （HCE） has also been proven to be very weak. In this paper, the reason why the annular gate nMOSFETs have good TID but bad HCE resistance is discussed in detail, and an improved design to locate the source contacts only along one side of the annular gate is used to weaken the HCE degradation. The good TID and HCE hardened capability of the design are verified by the experiments for I/O and core nMOSFETs in a 0.18 μm bulk CMOS technology. In addition, the shortcoming of this design is also discussed and the TID and the HCE characteristics of the replacers （the annular source nMOSFETs） are also studied to provide a possible alternative for the designers.

Total Ionization Dose Effects on Charge Storage Capability of Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3-Based Charge Trapping Memory Cell

Because of the discrete charge storage mechanism, charge trapping memory（CTM） technique is a good candidate for aerospace and military missions. The total ionization dose（TID） effects on CTM cells with Al2O3/HfO2/Al2O3（AHA） high-k gate stack structure under in-situ 10 keV x-rays are studied. The C-V characteristics at different radiation doses demonstrate that charge stored in the device continues to be leaked away during the irradiation,thereby inducing the shift of flat band voltage（V（fb））. The dc memory window shows insignificant changes, suggesting the existence of good P/E ability. Furthermore, the physical mechanisms of TID induced radiation damages in AHA-based CTM are analyzed.

Influences of total ionizing dose on single event effect sensitivity in floating gate cells

The influences of total ionizing dose （TID） on the single event effect （SEE） sensitivity of 34-nm and 25-nm NAND flash memories are investigated in this paper. The increase in the cross section of heavy-ion single event upset （SEU） in memories that have ever been exposed to TID is observed, which is attributed to the combination of the threshold voltage shifts induced by 7-rays and heavy ions. Retention errors in floating gate （FG） cells after heavy ion irradiation are observed. Moreover, the cross section of retention error increases if the memory has ever been exposed to TID. This effect is more evident at a low linear energy transfer （LET） value. The underlying mechanism is identified as the combination of the defects induced by 7-rays and heavy ions, which increases the possibility to constitute a multi-trap assisted tunneling （m- TAT） path across the tunnel oxide.

Influence of characteristics' measurement sequence on total ionizing dose effect in PDSOI nMOSFET

The influence of characteristics’ measurement sequence on total ionizing dose effect in partially-depleted SOI nMOSFET is comprehensively studied. We find that measuring the front-gate curves has no influence on total ionizing dose effect.However, the back-gate curves’ measurement has a great influence on total ionizing dose effect due to high electric field in the buried oxide during measuring. In this paper, we analyze their mechanisms and we find that there are three kinds of electrons tunneling mechanisms at the bottom corner of the shallow trench isolation and in the buried oxide during the backgate curves’ measurement, which are: Fowler–Nordheim tunneling, trap-assisted tunneling, and charge-assisted tunneling.The tunneling electrons neutralize the radiation-induced positive trapped charges, which weakens the total ionizing dose effect. As the total ionizing dose level increases, the charge-assisted tunneling is enhanced by the radiation-induced positive trapped charges. Hence, the influence of the back-gate curves’ measurement is enhanced as the total ionizing dose level increases. Different irradiation biases are compared with each other. An appropriate measurement sequence and voltage bias are proposed to eliminate the influence of measurement.

Total ionizing dose effect in an input/output device for flash memory

Input/output devices for flash memory are exposed to gamma ray irradiation. Total ionizing dose has been shown great influence on characteristic degradation of transistors with different sizes. In this paper, we observed a larger increase of off-state leakage in the short channel device than in long one. However, a larger threshold voltage shift is observed for the narrow width device than for the wide one, which is well known as the radiation induced narrow channel effect. The radiation induced charge in the shallow trench isolation oxide influences the electric field of the narrow channel device. Also, the drain bias dependence of the off-state leakage after irradiation is observed, which is called the radiation enhanced drain induced barrier lowing effect. Finally, we found that substrate bias voltage can suppress the off-state leakage, while leading to more obvious hump effect.

Direct measurement and analysis of total ionizing dose effect on 130 nm PD SOI SRAM cell static noise margin

In this work, the total ionizing dose（TID） effect on 130 nm partially depleted（PD） silicon-on-insulator（SOI） static random access memory（SRAM） cell stability is measured. The SRAM cell test structure allowing direct measurement of the static noise margin（SNM） is specifically designed and irradiated by gamma-ray. Both data sides＇ SNM of 130 nm PD SOI SRAM cell are decreased by TID, which is different from the conclusion obtained in old generation devices that one data side＇s SNM is decreased and the other data side＇s SNM is increased. Moreover, measurement of SNM under different supply voltages（Vdd） reveals that SNM is more sensitive to TID under lower Vdd. The impact of TID on SNM under data retention Vddshould be tested, because Vddof SRAM cell under data retention mode is lower than normal Vdd.The mechanism under the above results is analyzed by measurement of I–V characteristics of SRAM cell transistors.

New Method of Total Ionizing Dose Compact Modeling in Partially Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator MOSFETs

On the basis of a detailed discussion of the development of total ionizing dose （TID） effect model, a new commercial-model-independent TID modeling approach for partially depleted silicon-on-insulator metal-oxide- semiconductor field effect transistors is developed. An exponential approximation is proposed to simplify the trap charge calculation. Irradiation experiments with 60Co gamma rays for IO and core devices are performed to validate the simulation results. An excellent agreement of measurement with the simulation results is observed.

Total ionizing dose induced single transistor latchup in 130-nm PDSOI input/output NMOSFETs

Total ionizing dose induced single transistor latchup effects for 130 nm partially depleted silicon-on-insulator （PDSOI） NMOSFETs with the bodies floating were studied in this work. The latchup phenomenon strongly correlates with the bias configuration during irradiation. It is found that the high body doping concentration can make the devices less sensitive to the single transistor latchup effect, and the onset drain voltage at which latchup occurs can degrade as the total dose level rises. The mechanism of band-to-band tunneling （BBT） has been discussed. Two-dimensional simulations were conducted to evaluate the BBT effect. It is demonstrated that BBT combined with the positive trapped charge in the buried oxide （BOX） contributes a lot to the latchup effect.

Hot-Carrier Effects on Total Dose Irradiated 65 nm n-Type Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors

The influence of total dose irradiation on hot-carrier reliability of 65 nm n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field- effect transistors （nMOSFETs） is investigated. Experimental results show that hot-carrier degradations on ir- radiated narrow channel nMOSFETs are greater than those without irradiation. The reason is attributed to radiation-induced charge trapping in shallow trench isolation （STI）. The electric field in the pinch-off region of the nMOSFET is enhanced by radiation-induced charge trapping in STI, resulting in a more severe hot-carrier effect.