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Detector Seminar
Hadron-Nucleus Reactions, Nano-Scale Dosimetry and Single Event Effects in Microelectronics
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Europe/Zurich
TH Theory Conference Room (CERN)
TH Theory Conference Room
CERN
Description
Particle-induced single event upsets (SEUs), or soft errors (SERs), in microelectronic circuits are soft fails. In the past two decades, they have been recognized in the microelectronics and aerospace industries as one of the key reliability concerns for technology developments. In an SEU event, the memory state of a device is changed by a spurious, transient current caused by an intruding particle, and the stored data in the circuit is subsequently corrupted. However, as a contrast to a hard fail, a SEU is not associated with a physical damage of the device, or degradation of the circuit.
There are several major sources of SEUs: (1) alpha particles emitted from certain packaging materials that contain radioactive traces like 210Po, (2) background radiation from cosmic rays and (3) thermal neutron interactions with certain device materials which are heavily doped with 10B. In the past decade, the international communities of nuclear and high-energy physics have experienced some serious SEU problems caused by the intense radiation environments in the experimental projects.
This talk is aimed at theorists as well as experimentalists.
After a brief review of our current theoretical and experimental SEE research at the Watson Center, we summarize the major lessons learned, and our current understanding of the SEU problems. For soft fails caused by high-energy particles, hadron-induced (spallation) reactions are shown to play a central role. Using the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices as the base technology, we examine the SEU trends. At the device level, we analyze how technology scaling affects SEUs (eg. the combined effects of lowering applied voltage and intrinsic capacitances, and increasing device density per chip). At a microscopic level, we show how SEUs are triggered by the secondary fragments produced by the interaction between an intruding hadron and a nucleus in the integrated circuit or device - as in the cases of cosmic ray-induced soft fails, and the soft fails observed in high-energy experiments.
Our recent work on the 65nm technology strongly suggests a new research direction. In light of some recent measurements on new test structures, the fundamental concept of critical charge – the minimum charge required to upset a circuit - needs to be re-examined. Due to scaling, the finite size of the electron-hole plasma column along the path of the radiation particle - the track structure - should be included in the Qcirt analysis of new technologies. This is essentially the same physics issue for dosimetry calculations at the nano-scale. One needs to consider the non-local corrections to the linear energy transfer (LET) due to the secondary electrons.
There are several major sources of SEUs: (1) alpha particles emitted from certain packaging materials that contain radioactive traces like 210Po, (2) background radiation from cosmic rays and (3) thermal neutron interactions with certain device materials which are heavily doped with 10B. In the past decade, the international communities of nuclear and high-energy physics have experienced some serious SEU problems caused by the intense radiation environments in the experimental projects.
This talk is aimed at theorists as well as experimentalists.
After a brief review of our current theoretical and experimental SEE research at the Watson Center, we summarize the major lessons learned, and our current understanding of the SEU problems. For soft fails caused by high-energy particles, hadron-induced (spallation) reactions are shown to play a central role. Using the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices as the base technology, we examine the SEU trends. At the device level, we analyze how technology scaling affects SEUs (eg. the combined effects of lowering applied voltage and intrinsic capacitances, and increasing device density per chip). At a microscopic level, we show how SEUs are triggered by the secondary fragments produced by the interaction between an intruding hadron and a nucleus in the integrated circuit or device - as in the cases of cosmic ray-induced soft fails, and the soft fails observed in high-energy experiments.
Our recent work on the 65nm technology strongly suggests a new research direction. In light of some recent measurements on new test structures, the fundamental concept of critical charge – the minimum charge required to upset a circuit - needs to be re-examined. Due to scaling, the finite size of the electron-hole plasma column along the path of the radiation particle - the track structure - should be included in the Qcirt analysis of new technologies. This is essentially the same physics issue for dosimetry calculations at the nano-scale. One needs to consider the non-local corrections to the linear energy transfer (LET) due to the secondary electrons.
Organised by
Ariella Cattai & Federico Faccio