Radiation hardness of FDSOI and FinFET technologies

Silicon-On-lnsulator (SOI) has long been recognized to provide inherent resistance to transient ionizing radiation effects due to the isolation from the substrate. The buried insulating layer (buried oxide BOX) is also known to introduce problematic considerations for total ionizing dose (TID) radiation effects, particularly for fully-depleted (FD) SOI. Recent work in characterization of TID effects in partially depleted (PD) SOI indicates that the inherently high doping levels of the body region result in insensitivity to TID. The pros and cons generally apply to all SOI-based technologies, including thin-film CMOS as well as thick film bipolar, LDMOS, and power MOSFETs. Space and military devices continue to be an opportunity for thin and thick SOI devices where the BOX limits global photocurrents in high dose-rate environments, and local photocurrents in heavy-ion space environments. At the same time, single-event effects (SEE) have become an increasing reliability concern in terrestrial electronics, particularly in sub-65 nm CMOS circuits. Small amounts of charge representing each bit of information, high clock speeds, low operating voltages, and high packing densities all exacerbate the sensitivity to ionizing particles. Terrestrial neutron effects, and more recently direct ionization by protons and muons, are significant considerations in present and emerging electronic devices, motivating a closer look at SEE in ultra-thin (UT) FDSOI.