Predicting Thermal Neutron-Induced Soft Errors in Static Memories Using TCAD and Physics-Based Monte Carlo Simulation Tools

Author

Warren, Kevin M. ; Sierawski, Brian D. ; Weller, Robert A. ; Reed, Robert A. ; Mendenhall, Marcus H. ; Pellish, Jonathan A. ; Schrimpf, Ron D. ; Massengill, Lloyd W. ; Porter, Mark E. ; Wilkinson, Jeffrey D.

Author_Institution

Inst. for Space & Defense Electron., Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN

Volume

28

Issue

2

fYear

2007

Firstpage

180

Lastpage

182

Abstract

A combination of commercial simulation tools and custom applications utilizing Geant4 physics libraries is used to analyze thermal neutron induced soft error rates in a commercial bulk CMOS SRAM. Detailed descriptions of the sensitive regions based upon technology in computer-aided design calibration are used in conjunction with a physics-based Monte Carlo simulator to predict neutron soft error cross sections that are in good agreement with experimental results

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; Monte Carlo methods; circuit CAD; neutron effects; random-access storage; CMOS SRAM; Geant4 Physics libraries; Monte Carlo simulation tools; TCAD; computer-aided design calibration; thermal neutron-induced soft errors; Analytical models; Application software; CMOS technology; Computational modeling; Design automation; Error analysis; Libraries; Neutrons; Physics; Random access memory; Environmental radiation effects; integrated circuit radiation effects; integrated circuit reliability; neutron radiation effects;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2006.889632

Filename

4068974