New model of the excess charge generation by nuclear reaction products in electronic components

Abstract

A method for calculating the cross-section for single event effect (SEE) in the electronics operation is proposed; it is caused by secondary ions — products of the interaction between a high-energy proton with the atomic nucleus of one of the materials of an integrated circuit. To estimate the excess charge generated in this case, the contribution of all secondary ions, including those born outside the sensitive layer, is taken into account in the model. Along with the traditional approach based on inelastic energy losses, the model considers the process of atom ionization in the approximation of the effective ion charge. The new method gives lower values of the number of electron–hole pairs and the SEE cross-section.