Investigating the single-event-transient sensitivity of 65 nm clock trees with heavy ion irradiation and Monte-Carlo simulation

We present a study of single-event transients in clock tree structures in 65 nm bulk silicon technology. Shift registers are irradiated with heavy ions over a large range of linear energy transfers representative of both terrestrial and space environments. By attributing large error clusters in the flip-flop shifters to clock tree events, we derive experimental cross sections for the clock tree cells. Monte-Carlo irradiation simulations performed on the same structures are in good agreement with these data, allowing to assess the radiation robustness of other clock-tree configurations.