Effects of total ionizing dose on transient ionizing radiation upset sensitivity of 40–180 nm SRAMs

Junlin Li,Chenhui Wang,Yan Liu,Ruibin Li,Wei Chen,Xiaoyan Bai,Guizhen Wang,Chao Qi,Xiaoming Jin

doi:10.1063/5.0081576

Junlin Li, Chenhui Wang + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0081576

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Journal: AIP Advances	Publication Date: Jan 1, 2022
Citations: 2	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology

Abstract

Effects of total ionizing dose (TID) on the transient radiation upset sensitivity of commercial static random access memories (SRAMs) were investigated. Commercial SRAMs of three technology nodes were irradiated with Co-60 gamma rays for total dose effects and with pulsed x rays generated using a “Chen-Guang” accelerator for doserate effects. It is shown that TID irradiation and the memory pattern written to the memory array during TID irradiation can substantially affect the transient radiation upset sensitivity of all the SRAMs. First, the memory pattern written to the memory array during TID irradiation is more sensitive to pulsed x rays for all SRAMs. Second, the variation in transient radiation upset sensitivity with total dose has different tendencies for different SRAMs, but the static power current increased with the increase in total dose for all SRAMs. The increase in static power current with total dose and the increasing sensitivity of the memory pattern during TID irradiation are caused by the increasing TID induced leakage current, which results in an asymmetric noise margin of individual memory cells.

Highlights

With the development of the semiconductor manufacturing process, nano-static random access memories (SRAMs) with fast speed, low power dissipation, and high performance are widely used in system on chip (SOC) and system in package (SIP) nowadays
The synergistic effects of total ionizing dose (TID) on single event upset (SEU) sensitivity in memories have been widely studied since the 1980s, investigations on micrometer SRAMs indicate that the SEU cross section of micrometer SRAMs increases by three orders of magnitude after TID exposure, and the memory pattern applied during TID irradiation has an obvious influence on SEU sensitivity
As the TID damage threshold was obtained and numerous hard errors appeared in the memory cell, the irradiation experiment of 90 nm SRAM was stopped at 144 krad(Si)

Summary

INTRODUCTION

With the development of the semiconductor manufacturing process, nano-static random access memories (SRAMs) with fast speed, low power dissipation, and high performance are widely used in system on chip (SOC) and system in package (SIP) nowadays. The synergistic effects of total ionizing dose (TID) on single event upset (SEU) sensitivity in memories have been widely studied since the 1980s, investigations on micrometer SRAMs indicate that the SEU cross section of micrometer SRAMs increases by three orders of magnitude after TID exposure, and the memory pattern applied during TID irradiation has an obvious influence on SEU sensitivity.. The synergistic effects of total ionizing dose (TID) on single event upset (SEU) sensitivity in memories have been widely studied since the 1980s, investigations on micrometer SRAMs indicate that the SEU cross section of micrometer SRAMs increases by three orders of magnitude after TID exposure, and the memory pattern applied during TID irradiation has an obvious influence on SEU sensitivity.1–4 The former researchers attributed the memory pattern dependence of SEU sensitivity to a large threshold voltage shift of MOS transistors induced by TID.. The interesting measurement results and the corresponding mechanisms are presented in this paper

EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS

TID irradiation results

Transient radiation upset threshold under different TIDs

ANALYSIS AND DISSCUSSION

CONCLUSION