Soft errors — Past history and recent discoveries

Soft errors from alpha particles and terrestrial neutrons have been an issue in commercial electronic systems for over three decades. Measurement and mitigation techniques are well developed, but recent work highlights new issues that will need to be addressed for deep sub-micrometer technologies. The contribution of thermal neutrons does not appear to be eliminated with BPSG-free processing. In addition, neutrons in the spectral range of 1-10 MeV appear to be significant for soft error rates. Charge sharing and multi-node effects will negate some of the redundant circuit designs. As low power devices gain in applications, the impact of soft errors in the sub-threshold region of operation will be important.