Radiation-Induced Energy Deposition and Single Event Upset Error Rates in Scaled Microelectronic Structures

Abstract

Energy deposition from particles in space can cause upsets in microelectronic devices resulting in unreliable systems. A Geant4 based application, MRED (Monte Carlo Radiative Energy Deposition), is used to investigate energy deposition in scaled microelectronic structures. Simulations in this work show that neglecting the ion-ion interaction processes (both particles having Z > 1) results in an underestimation of the total on-orbit single event upset (SEU) error rate by more than two orders of magnitude for certain technologies. The inclusion of ion-ion nuclear reactions leads to dramatically different SEU error rates for modeled CMOS devices containing high Z materials compared with direct ionization by the primary ion alone. Device geometry and material composition have a dramatic effect on charge generation in small sensitive volumes for the spectrum of ion energies found in space, compared with the limited range of energies typical of ground tests. Comparisons between MRED results and previously published results from another Monte Carlo based code are shown to have good agreement.