Developing a Universal Mirror–mirror Laser Mapping System for Single Event Effect Research

Shuting Shi,Cheng Gu,Li Chen,George Belev,Shijie Wen,Haonan Tian,Issam Nofal

doi:10.3390/app10093018

Abstract

Research on single event effects (SEEs) is significant to the design and manufacture of modern electronic devices. By applying two photon absorption (TPA) ultra-fast pulsed lasers, extra electron-hole pairs (EHPs) are generated in a desired location on a chip, simulating the process that could occur in the circuit by energetic particles. In this study, a SEE sensitivity mapping system is described which uses this method to generate real-time sensitivity maps for various electronic devices. The system hardware includes an attenuator to control the energy, a Pockels cell as a fast-optical switcher and a mirror–mirror module to project the laser beam into a certain location. The system software developed for this application controls the laser system, automatically generates sensitivity maps, communicates with the testing devices and logs the SEE results. The two main features of this laser mapping system are: high scanning velocity for large area scanning (about 1 × 1 mm) and high spatial resolution for small area scanning (about 1 × 1 μm). To verify this mapping system, sensitivity maps were generated for static random access memory (SRAM) built with 65 nm technology and for commercial operational amplifiers (op-amps). The achieved sensitivity maps were compared with circuitry analysis and laser testing results, confirming this mapping system to be effective.

Highlights

Single event effects (SEEs) are unexpected electronic disturbances that occur in integrated circuits (ICs) due to the extra charges generated by ionizing particles or other forms of radiation [1,2]
This study introduces a universal single event effect (SEE) laser mapping system with a mirror–mirror Beam Scan Module (BSM) that employs a two photon absorption (TPA) pulsed laser source
Spatial and temporal verification experiments were performed to confirm that the mapping system was able to generate sensitivity maps for a static random access memory (SRAM) cell and op-amps

Summary

Introduction

Single event effects (SEEs) are unexpected electronic disturbances that occur in integrated circuits (ICs) due to the extra charges generated by ionizing particles or other forms of radiation (e.g., pulsed laser beam) [1,2]. While accelerators are traditionally used as the SEE testing facility [3], pulsed laser, as research has indicated [4,5], can work effectively as a complementary facility, but provide more benefits like better spatial and temporal control, as well as being more cost-effective. There are two typical laser SEEs testing processes, single photon absorption (SPA) and two photon absorption (TPA), which are described in detail by several studies [5,6,7].

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion