Soft errors induced by natural radiation at ground level in floating gate flash memories

Author

Just, G. ; Autran, J.L. ; Serre, S. ; Munteanu, Daniela ; Sauze, S. ; Regnier, A. ; Ogier, J.L. ; Roche, Philippe ; Gasiot, Gilles

Author_Institution

Inst. of Mater., Microelectron. & Nanosci. of Provence (IM2NP), Aix-Marseille Univ., Marseille, France

fYear

2013

fDate

14-18 April 2013

Abstract

This work reports the combined characterization at mountain altitude (on the ASTEP Platform at 2552 m) and at sea-level of more than ~50 Gbit of 90 nm NOR flash memories subjected to natural radiation (atmospheric neutrons). This wafer-level experiment evidences a limited impact of the terrestrial radiation at ground level on the memory SER evaluated without ECC. Experimental values are compared to estimations obtained from Monte Carlo simulation using the TIARA-G4 code combined with a physical model for charge loss in such floating-gate devices.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; NOR circuits; flash memories; ASTEP platform; Monte Carlo simulation; NOR flash memories; TIARA-G4 code; atmospheric neutrons; charge loss; floating-gate devices; ground level; memory SER; mountain altitude; natural radiation; physical model; size 90 nm; soft errors; terrestrial radiation; wafer-level; Adaptation models; Atmospheric modeling; Flash memories; Integrated circuit modeling; Neutrons; Nonvolatile memory; Semiconductor device modeling; Soft-error rate; atmospheric neutrons; flash memory; non-volatile memory; real-time testing; single-event upset;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Reliability Physics Symposium (IRPS), 2013 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Anaheim, CA

ISSN

1541-7026

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-0112-8

Electronic_ISBN

1541-7026

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IRPS.2013.6531992

Filename

6531992