Hafnium and Uranium Contributions to Soft Error Rate at Ground Level

Abstract

Current technologies are sensitive to low Linear Energy Transfer particles such as alphas. These particles can be spontaneously produced by some radioactive elements, called alpha-emitters. Here, we investigate two examples of emitters, Hafnium and Uranium. By calculating the disintegration rate in a modern technology with hafnium dioxide, we show that hafnium has no incidence on Soft Error Rate. Moreover, from Monte Carlo simulations, we point out that natural Uranium concentration in a silicon wafer lead to a Soft Error Rate comparable to that due to neutrons at ground level.