The role of surface recombination in single event phenomena

Abstract

Errors produced in digital circuits by particle radiation are one of the most pervasive challenges for modern electronics and immense manufacturing costs makes predictive modeling of these errors an invaluable tool. Accurate models must effectively capture the physical mechanisms that relate the energy deposited by radiation to the manifestation of errors. This dissertation describes how surface recombination along the increasingly numerous interfaces used for electrical isolation can become an important physical mechanism. Mechanistic modeling of ion strikes, supported by focused ion beam experiments, in Sandia National Laboratories silicon-on-insulator technology demonstrate conditions where surface recombination can become a dominant physical mechanism. Surface recombination is an important physical mechanism to consider when evaluating the radiation-reliability of integrated devices if the isolation interfaces have an SRV of 103 cm/s or higher. If the SRV along isolation interfaces exceeds 105 cm/s, including surface recombination is essential to making quantitative predictions.