Soft error rate analysis based on multiple sensitive volume model using PHITS

Abe, Shinichiro   ; Sato, Tatsuhiko   

Secondary cosmic-ray neutron-induced soft errors have been recognized as a serious problem affecting the reliability of microelectronic devices. Our developed Multi-scale Monte Carlo simulator called PHYSERD is a reliable code for analysis of soft error. However, PHYSERD takes long computational time to calculate processes of collecting charges because event-by-event technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulation is time consuming. In this study, the multiple sensitive volume (MSV) model is adopted to estimate collected charge. Secondary cosmic-ray neutron-induced soft errors in an NMOSFET are analyzed based on the MSV model using PHITS. The results are compared with those obtained by PHYSERD based on event-by-event TCAD simulation and by single sensitive volume (SSV) model using PHITS. It is found that PHITS+MSV provides approximate SERs in a shorter time than PHYSERD. Furthermore, PHITS+MSV reproduces SERs and collected charges more accurately than PHITS+SSV by considering the spatial dependence of the charge collection efficiencies.