Abstract
Single event upset, or Single Event Effect (SEE) is increasingly important as semiconductor devices are entering into nano-meter scale. The Linear Energy Transfer (LET) concept is commonly used to estimate the rate of SEE. The SEE, however, should be related to energy deposition of each stochastic event, but not LET which is a non-stochastic quantity. Instead, microdosimetry, which uses a lineal calculation of energy lost per step for each specific track, should be used to replace LET to predict microelectronic failure from SEEs. Monte Carlo simulation is used for the demonstration, and there are several parameters needed to optimise for SEE simulation, such as the target size, physical models and scoring techniques. We also show the thickness of the sensitive volume, which also correspond to the size of a device, will change the spectra of lineal energy. With a more comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation performed in this work, we also show and explain the differences in our results and the reported results such as those from Hiemstra et al. which are commonly used in semiconductor industry for the prediction of SEE in devices.
Highlights
Radiations exist around us in the air, and it includes photon, electron, neutron and alpha particle
The effect of these radiations on microelectronic devices can be categorized into two different effects, namely a cumulative effect termed as Total Ionization Dose (TID) effect, and a stochastic effect, termed as Single Event Effect (SEE) [3]
In contrast to the works of Schwank et al and Hiemstra et al [8,40], the Linear Energy Transfer (LET) spectra of their studies have a cut off around 15–16 MeV-cm2 /mg but not in our study. This difference of our work and their work is because Schwank and Hiemstra used a reference Table to calculate the LET from energy fluence instead of calculating the energy deposition, and such method is only applicable for large target where the number of interactions is large enough that y can convergence to a single value which is LET
Summary
Radiations exist around us in the air, and it includes photon, electron, neutron and alpha particle. These tests are usually expensive and difficult Another way to predict single event rate is to convolute the LET spectra in target orbital with the single event cross sections (either for a device or averaged per bit) from either experiment or simulation. With today nano-meter microelectronic devices, the variability of LET from a given radiation can be very large, and this leads to the necessity to use the concept of lineal energy distribution to predict SEE in a given device. Tried to use a simplified Monte Carlo method, which allow only one filial of secondary particles to compute their corresponding ranges They used the range to calculate LET and predict SEE [8]. The lineal energy is analysed in detail for each particle crossing the sensitivity volume, and the physical models for intra-nuclear interaction in Geant are compared
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
