Search results for "single event effect"
showing 10 items of 15 documents
Can Atmospheric Neutrons Induce Soft Errors in NAND Floating Gate Memories?
2009
Atmospheric neutrons can interact with the matter inside a microelectronic chip and generate ionizing particles, which in turn can change the state of one or more memory bits [soft error (SE)]. In this letter, we show that SEs are possible in Flash memories, although with extremely low probabilities. While this problem will increase for future technologies, we do not expect SEs to be the reliability limiting factor for further floating gate scaling.
Failure Estimates for SiC Power MOSFETs in Space Electronics
2018
Silicon carbide (SiC) power metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) are space-ready in terms of typical reliability measures. However, single event burnout (SEB) due to heavy-ion irradiation often occurs at voltages 50% or lower than specified breakdown. Failure rates in space are estimated for burnout of 1200 V devices based on the experimental data for burnout and the expected heavy-ion linear energy transfer (LET) spectrum in space. peerReviewed
Microbeam SEE Analysis of MIM Capacitors for GaN Amplifiers
2018
Broad-beam and microbeam single-event effect tests were performed on metal–insulator–metal capacitors with three different thicknesses of silicon nitride (Si3N4) dielectric insulator: 250, 500, and 750 nm. The broad-beam tests indicated that the devices with the thicker, 500- and 750-nm dielectric did not have a greater breakdown voltage. The surrounding structures of the capacitor were suspected to be a possible cause. Microbeam techniques made it possible to localize the failure location for the 500- and 750-nm devices. The failure occurs in the air bridge structure connected to the top capacitor plate, which can therefore be considered as an edge effect, while for the 250-nm devices, the…
Current Transport Mechanism for Heavy-Ion Degraded SiC MOSFETs
2019
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 66 (7)
Heavy-Ion Microbeam Studies of Single-Event Leakage Current Mechanism in SiC VD-MOSFETs
2020
Heavy-ion microbeams are employed for probing the radiation-sensitive regions in commercial silicon carbide (SiC) vertical double-diffused power (VD)-MOSFETs with micrometer accuracy. By scanning the beam spot over the die, a spatial periodicity was observed in the leakage current degradation, reflecting the striped structure of the power MOSFET investigated. Two different mechanisms were observed for degradation. At low drain bias (gate and source grounded), only the gate-oxide (at the JFET or neck region) is contributing in the ion-induced leakage current. For exposures at drain–source bias voltages higher than a specific threshold, additional higher drain leakage current is observed in t…
Impact of Terrestrial Neutrons on the Reliability of SiC VD-MOSFET Technologies
2021
Accelerated terrestrial neutron irradiations were performed on different commercial SiC power MOSFETs with planar, trench and double-trench architectures. The results were used to calculate the failure cross-sections and the failure in time (FIT) rates at sea level. Enhanced gate and drain leakage were observed in some devices which did not exhibit a destructive failure during the exposure. In particular, a different mechanism was observed for planar and trench gate MOSFETs, the first showing a partial gate rupture with a leakage path mostly between drain and gate, similar to what was previously observed with heavy-ions, while the second exhibiting a complete gate rupture. The observed fail…
Single-Event Burnout Mechanisms in SiC Power MOSFETs
2018
Heavy ion-induced single-event burnout (SEB) is investigated in high-voltage silicon carbide power MOSFETs. Experimental data for 1200-V SiC power MOSFETs show a significant decrease in SEB onset voltage for particle linear energy transfers greater than 10 MeV/cm 2 /mg, above which the SEB threshold voltage is nearly constant at half of the rated maximum operating voltage for these devices. TCAD simulations show a parasitic bipolar junction transistor turn-on mechanism, which drives the avalanching of carriers and leads to runaway drain current, resulting in SEB. peerReviewed
Isotopic Enriched and Natural SiC Junction Barrier Schottky Diodes Under Heavy Ion Irradiation
2022
The radiation tolerance of isotopic enriched and natural silicon carbide junction barrier Schottky diodes are compared under heavy ion irradiation. Both types of devices experience leakage current degradation as well as single-event burnout events. The results were comparable, although the data may indicate a marginally lower thresholds for the isotopic enriched devices at lower linear energy transfer (LET). Slightly higher reverse bias threshold values for leakage current degradation were also observed compared to previously published work.
Key Contributions to the Cross Section of NAND Flash Memories Irradiated With Heavy Ions
2008
Heavy-ion irradiation of NAND flash memories under operating conditions leads to errors with complex, data-dependent signatures. We present upsets due to hits in the floating gate array and in the peripheral circuitry, discussing their peculiarities in terms of pattern dependence and annealing. We also illustrate single event functional interruptions, which lead to errors during erase and program operations. To account for all the phenomena we observe during and after irradiation, we propose an ldquoeffective cross section,rdquo which takes into account the array and peripheral circuitry contributions to the SEU sensitivity, as well as the operating conditions.
Direct evidence of secondary recoiled nuclei from high energy protons
2008
The production of secondary recoiled particles from interactions between high energy protons and microelectronics devices was investigated. By using NAND Flash memories, we were able to directly obtain analog information on recoil characteristics. While our results qualitatively confirm the role of nuclear reactions, in particular of those with tungsten, a quantitative model based on Monte Carlo and device-level simulations cannot describe the observed results in terms of recoils from proton-W reactions. © 2006 IEEE.