Simulation of neutron- and muon-induced soft errors

Abe, Shinichiro   

Soft errors caused by secondary cosmic-rays have recognized as a serious reliability problem for microelectronic devices. Recently, the effect of secondary cosmic-ray muon on soft error is concerned. Muon-induced soft errors have been measuring at the muon science facility (MUSE) in Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). In this study, we investigate the shielding effect on secondary cosmic-ray neutron- and muon-induced soft error rates (SERs). Transports of secondary cosmic-rays in a building were simulated by PHITS with PARMA 4.0. The calculated neutron fluxes are in surprisingly good agreement with measured data. The soft errors in each condition were analyzed by PHITS based on the multiple sensitive volume (MSV) model. It is clarified that muon-induced SER is mostly same while neutron-induced SER is reduced by the shielding effect. This result indicate that the contribution of secondary cosmic-ray muon is not negligible for soft errors.