Impact of strained-Si PMOS transistors on SRAM soft error rates

For advanced deep sub-micron technology nodes, the use of strained-Si is fast becoming the norm. The experimental Soft Error Rate (SER) of 40 nm technology triple-well SRAMs that incorporate strained-Si PMOS transistors are compared with the SER for 90 nm, 65 nm and 45 nm triple-well bulk CMOS SRAMs fabricated without strain. Results indicate that the total SER decreases by approximately 50% with strain. Most importantly, however, the Multiple-Cell Upset (MCU) Rate decreases significantly. The factors that result in improved SER for strained SRAMs are investigated.