Hafnium and Uranium Contributions to Soft Error Rate at Ground Level

Current technologies are sensitive to low Linear Energy Transfer particles such as alphas. These particles can be spontaneously produced by some radioactive elements, called alpha-emitters. Here, we investigate two examples of emitters, Hafnium and Uranium. By calculating the disintegration rate in a modern technology with hafnium dioxide, we show that hafnium has no incidence on Soft Error Rate. Moreover, from Monte Carlo simulations, we point out that natural Uranium concentration in a silicon wafer lead to a Soft Error Rate comparable to that due to neutrons at ground level.

[1]  Clive Dyer,et al.  Monte Carlo calculations of the influence on aircraft radiation environments of structures and solar particle events , 2001 .

[2]  S. Duarte,et al.  BRIEF REPORT: Systematics of alpha-decay half-life: new evaluations for alpha-emitter nuclides , 2006 .

[3]  George Gloeckler,et al.  Compositions of energetic particle populations in interplanetary space , 1979 .

[4]  F. Wrobel,et al.  Methodology to compute neutron-Induced Alphas contribution on the SEU Cross section in sensitive RAMs , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[5]  Pradyot Patnaik,et al.  Handbook of Inorganic Chemicals , 1997 .

[6]  H.H.K. Tang,et al.  Measurement of the flux and energy spectrum of cosmic-ray induced neutrons on the ground , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[7]  J. Baggio,et al.  Analysis of proton/neutron SEU sensitivity of commercial SRAMs-application to the terrestrial environment test method , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[8]  Georg Georgakos,et al.  Soft Error Rates in 65nm SRAMs--Analysis of new Phenomena , 2007, 13th IEEE International On-Line Testing Symposium (IOLTS 2007).

[9]  F. Wrobel,et al.  Criterion for SEU occurrence in SRAM deduced from circuit and device Simulations in case of neutron-induced SER , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[10]  Gilles Gasiot,et al.  Comparisons of soft error rate for SRAMs in commercial SOI and bulk below the 130-nm technology node , 2003 .

[11]  F. W. Sexton,et al.  Monte Carlo exploration of neutron-induced SEU-sensitive volumes in SRAMs , 2002 .

[12]  F. Sexton,et al.  Further development of the Heavy Ion Cross section for single event UPset: model (HICUP) , 1995 .

[13]  F. W. Sexton,et al.  Contribution of device simulation to SER understandfng , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium Proceedings, 2003. 41st Annual..

[14]  P. Roche,et al.  Real-time neutron and alpha soft-error rate testing of CMOS 130nm SRAM: Altitude versus underground measurements , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Integrated Circuit Design and Technology and Tutorial.