Comparative Analysis of Mechanical Strain and Silicon Film Thickness on Charge Collection Mechanisms of Nanometer Scaled SOI Devices Under Heavy Ion and Pulsed Laser Irradiation

Abstract

We investigate the impact of performance boosters using mechanical stress on the Single-Event Transient (SET) response of nanometer scaled Fully-Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) devices. Laser SET measurements show that the active silicon layer thickness is the most important contributor to the SET response of highly scaled Ultra-Thin SOI (UTSOI) devices compared to the impact of strain. This is then demonstrated by dedicated TCAD calculations performed without taking into account any strain engineering technique. Finally, heavy ion-induced charge collection mechanisms are analyzed through the measurement of fast transients to get additional insights into the impact of short channel effects on the SET response of nanometer scaled SOI devices.