Threshold energy of neutron-induced single event upset as a critical factor

Abstract

The physical modeling of neutron-induced SEU (single event upset) is usually described by high energy neutrons above a few tens MeV. In JESD89 it is assumed that the sensitivity of the concerned device to neutrons with energies less than 10 MeV is low enough to be ignored. The scaling of semiconductor devices can cause their higher susceptibility even to neutrons of several MeV, where the flux of terrestrial neutron is relatively high enough to affect SER (soft error rate) -estimation from data acquired by accelerated test. Although the information on the threshold energy of neutron-induced SEU becomes more important, the definition of the threshold energy of neutron-induced SEU is not still an obscure issue. This work focuses on importance of the threshold energy of neutron-induced SEU. It is demonstrated how the threshold energy of neutron-induced SEU affects SER-estimation by accelerated test with (quasi-) mono energy neutrons.