Impact of scaling on the soft error sensitivity of bulk, FDSOI and FinFET technologies due to atmospheric radiation

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of terrestrial radiation on soft error (SE) sensitivity along the very large-scale integration (VLSI) roadmap of bulk, FDSOI and finFET nano-scale technologies using the MUSCA SEP3 tool. The terrestrial radiation considered in this work includes neutron, proton, and muon particles and alpha-emitters.The results indicate that protons and muons must be taken into account for ground environments. However, significant differences were observed for bulk, FDSOI and FinFET technologies. The downscaling induces an increase in SEU susceptibility to radiation. An overall analysis indicates that the SER does not increase drastically with technological integration for the three technologies considered. Moreover, the results show that FDSOI and FinFET technologies provide resistance to the ionizing radiation effects due to narrow sensitivity volumes. At the ground altitudes, the total SER ranges from 103 and 104 FIT/Mbit for the planar bulk technology while it ranges from 102 and 103 FIT/Mbit for the FDSOI and FinFET technologies.The results of analyses show that for the avionic altitude, neutron and/or the proton environments induce the main contribution to the total SER, whereas muon and α-SER impacts are negligible. For the 45-nm technological node (all types), the neutron contribution is around 60–70% of the total SER. Concerning the ground altitude, α-SER is the main contribution down to the 28-nm node. Moreover, the results suggest muon-induced upset affects the soft error rate from 32-nm SRAM operated at a nominal supply voltage and has a significant impact for circuits fabricated in smaller process technologies (22-nm and 14-nm). In addition, the results show that the muon impact can be the main contribution at 22-nm and beyond. Future terrestrial error rate predictions will require characterizations of the linear energy transfer (LET) threshold with consideration of muon and/or proton environments.