Single-Event Upsets in Microelectronics
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Single-Event Upsets
in Microelectronics
Henry H.K.Tang and Nils Olsson, Guest Editors Abstract This article introduces the February 2003 issue of MRS Bulletin on “Single-Event Upsets (SEUs) in Microelectronics.” These radiation effects in devices and circuits have been recognized in recent years as a key reliability concern for many current and future silicon-based technologies. This introduction sets the scope for critical discussions on this subject. The articles in the issue reflect the interdisciplinary nature of SEU research. The contributing authors include experts from several specializations: technology reliability, materials science, device physics, circuit designs, and theoretical and experimental nuclear physics. We review the current understanding of SEU problems from the perspectives of radiation physics, circuit design issues, and global technology developments. The discussions cover the key areas of modeling, circuit analyses, accelerator tests and experiments, basic nuclear data, and environmental neutron measurements. Keywords: radiation effects in microelectronics, single-event effects, single-event upsets (SEUs), soft errors.
The scaling of silicon-based integratedcircuit technologies poses a number of challenges for manufacturing. Among these, certain radiation effects known as singleevent upsets (SEUs) have attracted considerable attention in the past decade.1,2 They are now recognized in the industry as an important reliability area for many current and future products. When a charged particle hits a sensitive volume in a microelectronic device, such as a depletion region (a region of unbalanced charge across a p-n junction), the local carriers—electrons and holes— induced by the ionizing particle, under appropriate conditions, can be amplified to form an electrical pulse large enough to flip the memory state of a cell from 1 to 0 or vice versa. This random event, called a single-event upset or soft error, causes data corruption, although it does not cause any permanent damage in the device. Three major sources of SEUs are known to affect commercial products: (1) alpha particles (helium-4 nuclei) emitted by radioactive atoms found in packaging materials, (2) high-energy terrestrial cosmic rays, and (3) thermal neutrons in certain device materials that are heavily doped with 10B. Alpha particles emitted from packaging materials cause SEUs through direct ion-
MRS BULLETIN/FEBRUARY 2003
ization processes in the device. A thermal neutron (a low-energy neutron with a kinetic energy in the millielectronvolt range) undergoes a capture reaction with a 10B nucleus (present, e.g., in certain types of insulating glass placed next to a device), which is followed by the emission of a 7Li nucleus and a 4He nucleus. One of these two nuclei will then hit the device and cause SEUs. The scenario of high-energy cosmic rays is more complex. Subatomic particles like neutrons, protons, and pions— components of terrestrial cosmic rays at various altitudes—interact with silicon and the packaging materials of mic
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