Negative and Positive Muon-Induced Single Event Upsets in 65-nm UTBB SOI SRAMs

Abstract

We have performed an irradiation test of low-energy positive and negative muons on 65-nm ultra-thin body and thin buried oxide silicon-on-insulator static random access memories. The single event upset (SEU) cross sections were measured systematically as a function of incident muon momentum and operating supply voltage. The experimental results show that the negative muon SEUs occur at about three times higher rate than the positive muon ones at the supply voltage of 0.5 V when the incident muons stop near the sensitive volume (SV). A Monte-Carlo simulation with the particle and heavy ion transport code system (PHITS) was carried out using a simple SV model. The simulation based on the PHITS using the SV model is found to reproduce generally well the momentum dependence of the measured SEU cross sections for both positive and negative muons. From the simulation, the charged particles and secondary ions having significant influence on SEUs are specified and the differences between negative and positive muons are discussed.