Soft-Error Rate Induced by Thermal and Low Energy Neutrons in 40 nm SRAMs

Author

Autran, J.L. ; Serre, S. ; Semikh, S. ; Munteanu, D. ; Gasiot, G. ; Roche, P.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Mater., Microelectron. & Nanosci. of Provence (IM2NP), Aix-Marseille Univ., Marseille, France

Volume

59

Issue

6

fYear

2012

Firstpage

2658

Lastpage

2665

Abstract

The interactions of thermal and low energy ( <;1 MeV) neutrons with natural boron-doped silicon has been investigated using Geant4 numerical simulations. The consequences of these interactions on the soft-error rate of 40 nm SRAM at ground level have been carefully analyzed and quantified from thermal neutron accelerated tests at LLB facility, real-time altitude measurements on the ASTEP platform and numerical simulation using a new version of the TIARA Monte-Carlo code (TIARA-G4) capable of taking into account a more accurate description of the SRAM geometry and the true isotopic composition of circuit materials from silicon to back-end-of-line levels.

Keywords

SRAM chips; cosmic ray neutrons; radiation effects; ASTEP platform; Geant4 numerical simulations; LLB facility; SRAM geometry; TIARA Monte-Carlo code; back-end-of-line levels; circuit material isotopic composition; low energy neutrons; natural boron-doped silicon; real-time altitude measurements; size 40 nm; soft-error rate; thermal neutron accelerated tests; Boron; Integrated circuit modeling; Neutrons; Numerical simulation; Random access memory; SRAM chips; Silicon; $^{10}{rm B}$; Atmospheric neutrons; Geant4; SRAM; soft-error rate; thermal neutron;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNS.2012.2222438

Filename

6361428