Anomalous effect of trench-oxide depth on alpha-particle-induced charge collection

The effect of trench-oxide depth on the alpha-particle-induced charge collection is analyzed for the first time. From the simulation results, it was found that the depth of trench oxide has a considerable influence on the amount of collected charge. The confining of generated charge by the trench oxide was identified as a cause of this anomalous effect. Therefore, the tradeoff between soft error rate and cell to cell isolation characteristics should be considered in optimizing the depth of trench oxide.