Influence of N-Well Contact Area on the Pulse Width of Single-Event Transients

Heavy-ion broadbeam results from a 90 nm process are presented for five inverter chains with varying n-well contact schemes. Results show that inverters with the smallest percentage of n-well contact area within an n-well produced the longest and most frequent single-event transients (SETs). As the percentage of n-well area contacted increases above 2%, the pulse width and number of SETs levels-off. A result indicating an optimized percentage of n-well area contacted can be calculated that minimizes the pulse width and number of SETs in a digital circuit.