Proton Induced Single Event Upset in Submicron and Deep-submicron SRAMs

Key words: 
• proton /
• single event upset /
• nuclear reaction /
• CREME-MC simulation

Abstract: Microelectronic devices are used in a harsh radiation environment for space missions. Among all the reliability issues concerned, proton induced single event upset (SEU) is becoming more and more noticeable for semiconductor components exposed on space. In this work, an experimental research of SEU induced by 10 MeV proton for static random access memory (SRAM) of 0.5, 0.35 and 0.15 m feature size is carried out on HeavyIon Research Facility in Lanzhou for the rst time. The experimental results show that proton induced SEUs in submicron and deep-submicron (SRAMs) are dominated by secondary ions generated by proton nuclear reaction events. The silicon-on-insulator SRAMs characters natural radiation-hardened SEU by proton. For the deep-submicron bulk-silicon technology SRAM, the proton SEU cross section is closely related to the proton energy and there is a threshold energy for the SEU occurrence by proton indirect ionization. CREME-MC simulation indicates that the SEU events in deep-submicron SRAM are induced by the proton nuclear reaction.