Assessing Alpha Particle-Induced Single Event Transient Vulnerability in a 90-nm CMOS Technology

Author

Gadlage, Matthew J. ; Schrimpf, Ronald D. ; Narasimham, Balaji ; Pellish, Jonathan A. ; Warren, Kevin M. ; Reed, Robert A. ; Weller, Robert A. ; Bhuva, Bharat L. ; Massengill, Lloyd W. ; Zhu, Xiaowei

Author_Institution

Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN

Volume

29

Issue

6

fYear

2008

fDate

6/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

638

Lastpage

640

Abstract

The charge required to store (or potentially disturb) a digital logic signal decreases as feature sizes in advanced devices decrease. As a result, the soft-error rate has become a significant reliability issue for highly scaled technologies. Single-event transients (SETs), or glitches that originate in logic circuits, are one of the most important categories of soft errors. In this letter, SETs produced by heavy ions and alpha particles are measured using a specially designed IC. The first results identifying the conditions under which an alpha particle deposits enough charge to create a SET in a bulk 90-nm CMOS technology are presented.

Keywords

CMOS logic circuits; alpha-particles; integrated circuit reliability; radiation hardening (electronics); transients; CMOS technology; alpha particle-induced single event transient vulnerability; digital logic signal; single-event transients; size 90 nm; soft-error rate; Alpha particles; CMOS logic circuits; CMOS technology; Circuit testing; Logic circuits; Logic devices; MOSFETs; Pulse circuits; Pulse inverters; Pulse measurements; Alpha particles; IC reliability; radiation effects; single-event upset;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2008.922314

Filename

4526765