Muon-Induced Soft Errors in SRAM Circuits in the Terrestrial Environment

Abstract

Muon-induced soft errors are an increasing concern with technology scaling. However, the impact of terrestrial muons to the failure rate of circuits is unclear as methodologies have not yet been developed to extrapolate from accelerated measurements to the terrestrial environment. We introduce a new method to estimate muon-induced soft error rates (SERs) in SRAM devices by equating the muon energy spectrum with an alpha particle energy spectrum with an equivalent LET. Using this method, we estimate that, in the terrestrial environment, a muon-induced SER is smaller than that from packaging-related alpha particle and cosmic ray neutron components. FinFET SRAM devices will show a much reduced muon SER compared with planar transistors due to the minimization of charge collection associated with the fin geometry.Index Terms-Single event upsets (SEU), soft error rate (SER), muon particle.

Interactions of Low-Energy Muons with Silicon: Numerical Simulation of Negative Muon Capture and Prospects for Soft Errors

“…The result is a variety of interaction mechanisms and a certain hierarchy in the relative importance of these mechanisms in terms of ability to produce single events in devices or circuits. The respective contributions of atmospheric neutrons and muons have been weighted in several previous studies [4][5][6][7][51][52][53]. It has been clearly shown experimentally or by simulation that the muon-induced defect rate is limited to a fraction (ranging from a few percent to a maximum of 15 percent, depending on the circuit technology) of the neutron-induced defect rate.…”

Heavy ion-induced single event upset sensitivity evaluation of 3D integrated static random access memory

“…The deposited energy of sensitive transistors in each SRAM due to the interaction between ion and devices are converted to charge by using Eg. (5) and Eg. (6).…”

“…The various particles, for instance, α particle emitted from the radioactive impurities in package materials and neutron or proton come from high-energy cosmic rays [2,3]. Specially, the negligible low energy proton and muon in the past have become significant considering in single event evaluation [4,5]. Comparing with aforementioned particles, the heavy ions deposit more energy per unit depth along its track by directly localize ionization or indirectly nuclear reaction.…”

“…, and , are the total collected energy for the sensitive NMOS and PMOS during one ion striking. The deposited energy of sensitive transistors in each SRAM due to the interaction between ion and devices are converted to charge by using Eg (5). and Eg (6)…”