First principles simulation technique for characterizing single event effects

Abstract

This paper develops a new simulation technique to characterize single event effects on semiconductor devices. The technique used to calculate the single event effects is developed according to the physical interaction mechanism of a single event effect. An application of the first principles simulation technique is performed to predict the ground-test single event upset effect on field-programmable gate arrays based on 0.25 μm advanced complementary metal—oxide—semiconductor technology. The agreement between the single event upset cross section accessed from a broad-beam heavy ion experiment and simulation shows that the simulation technique could be used to characterize the single event effects induced by heavy ions on a semiconductor device.