Simulation of single event upset in semiconductor device induced by high energy neutrons

Abstract

As the fast developments of the semiconductor devices and electronic systems, technology is trending towards smaller size, lower voltage, higher density and larger number of memory bits. These factors increase the single event effects (SEE) induced by atmospheric neutron radiation, both on the ground and in aircraft. Rapid testing the susceptibility of each new generation of electron devices to the neutron radiation effects is highly needed in many fields such as aviation, automotive, electronic medical device, and high reliability computer users and so on. Here we performed single event upset (SEU) simulations in a static random access memory (SRAM) cell under the irradiations of the atmosphere neutrons, using the PHITS2.24 Monte Carlo code. PHITS2.24 introduced the special feature of the event generator mode, which combined the evaluated nuclear data with the general evaporation mode (GEM), so as to trace all correlations of ejectiles keeping the energy and the momentum conservation in a collision. PHITS outputs deposition energy distributions in the specified sensitive region, including energy deposit distributions caused by specific particles. By converting the deposition energy into the induced charge with the average required energy to produce an electron-hole pair (3.6 eV/(e-h pair)), the probabilities of the events can be calculated where the induced charge is greater than a critical charge. The MBGR parameters were validated and the SEU in a SRAM cell as a function of different critical charges were calculated. This kind of calculation supplies the basic method for the estimation of single event effects caused by atmosphere neutron irradiation. It is also very import for the future neutron irradiation experiment in semiconductor devices and electronic systems.