Similarity analysis on neutron- and negative muon-induced MCUs in 65-nm bulk SRAM

Liao, W.*; Hashimoto, Masanori*; Manabe, Seiya*; Abe, Shinichiro; Watanabe, Yukinobu*

IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 66(7), p.1390 - 1397, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2019.2921365

Multiple-cell upset (MCU) in static random access memory (SRAM) is a major concern in radiation effects on microelectronic devices since it can spoil error correcting codes. Neutron-induced MCUs have been characterized for terrestrial environment. On the other hand, negative muon-induced MCUs were recently reported. Neutron- and negative muon-induced MCUs are both caused by secondary ions, and hence, they are expected to have some similarity. In this paper, we compare negative muon- and neutron-induced MCUs in 65-nm bulk SRAMs at the irradiation experiments using spallation and quasi-monoenergetic neutrons and monoenergetic negative muons. The measurement results show that the dependencies of MCU event cross section on operating voltage are almost identical. The Monte Carlo simulation is conducted to investigate the deposited charge. The distributions of deposited charge obtained by the simulation are consistent with the above-mentioned experimental observations.