Deep insight on efficiency of deposited energy within sensitive volumes for characterizing basic mechanism of single event upset saturated cross-section regarding implicit inaccuracy

Abstract

The Single Event Upset (SEU) characterization on the partially depleted (PD) Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) SRAMs manufactured by 0.5/0.35 μm CMOS technology has been studied by using the experimental accelerator’s testing and Monte Carlo simulation. The results show that, in spite of the good consistent between the simulated data and experimental testing, one notable phenomenon is that, linear energy transfer (LET) as the input has no manifest influence on the saturation of SEU cross-section. This non-negligible trend led us to use the term ion velocity instead of LET. The characteristics of ion velocity have certainly been proved by the experiment, while the unsimilar results are found for the simulation with no any difference from the SEU cross-section. Consequently, a more straightforward calculation in the deposited energy within sensitive volume (SV) has performed by inspecting directly into the underlying mechanism of the undetected energy loss. The loss of deposited energy has been obtained in the assumption that the heavy ions strike on the hypothetical device at oblique incidence. The unexpected energy loss resulted from incident ions at oblique incidence as edge effect indicates the importance of quantifying the efficiency of energy collection with respect to the dimensions of SV, including the variance of surface area and thickness. It is illustrated that the deposited energy induced by heavy ions on the condition of changeable surface area has more sensitivity on the incident angle and ionic characterization compared with those for the SV of variable thicknesses. Moreover, it is obtained that the fractional changes of deposited energy within the SVs of different thicknesses present a saturating trend, which can be accelerated by the increment of incident angle, and this evidence would be helpful for deeply comprehending why the implicit inaccuracy of the SEU saturated cross-section happened under the metrics of LET or ion velocity. Ultimately, the dependence of deposited energy on the surface area and thickness is further explored and discussed based on the geometrical property and radial track profile.

KEYWORDS:

• Radiation effect
• single event upset
• SRAM cell
• sensitive volume
• edge effect
• ionic track

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank the staff from the Material Research Center at HIRFL, IMPCAS (Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) for their support during the heavy-ion tests.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chao Geng

Chao Geng received the B.S. degree in physics from Nanchang University, Nanchang, China, in 2009, and Ph.D. degree in nuclear physics from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, in 2014. In 2014, he joined the Academy of Shenzhen State Microelectronics Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China. He is currently a Senior Design Engineer, working on the reliability of the radiation effects on devices and circuits, and analog design on the isolated DC-DC power ICs & isolated ADC, especially in Delta-Sigma modulators and Integrated RF inductors. He has more than 10 papers published in journals.

Teng Tong

Teng Tong received the B.S. degree in Communication Engineering from East China Jiaotong University, Nanchang, China, in 2008, and Ph.D. degree in Nuclear Science and Technology from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, in 2014. He is currently an Associated Professor with the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. His research activity has been directed to the study of the radiation effects in electronics and electrically systematical design for detecting the radiation effects.