Impact of Temperature on Single-Event Transients in Deep Submicrometer Bulk and Silicon-On-Insulator Digital CMOS Technologies

Abstract

Single-event transients (SETs) are a significant reliability issue for space-based electronic systems. A single-event transient is a radiation-induced glitch in an electronic circuit caused by an ionizing particle. While there has been a large amount of research published on SETs, one key aspect that has been mostly ignored has been the impact of temperature on the time duration of these transients. Since the temperature ranges over which some space missions need to operate can be extreme, the role of temperature for all radiation effects is of vital importance for space systems. However, to understand fully how temperature will impact SETs, a complete understanding of SETs at room temperature is first needed. In this dissertation, heavy-ion data on ten SET test structures fabricated in a myriad of semiconductor technologies are presented. The data from these test structures give valuable insight into how the SET problem is changing with each technology node and how temperature affects the time duration of SETs.