I for Cosmic Ray Soft Errors in Semiconductor
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper presents a review of experiments performed by IBM to investigate the causes of soft errors in semiconductor memory chips under field test conditions. The effects of alphaparticles and cosmic rays are separated by comparing multiple measurements of the softerror rate (SER) of samples of memory chips deep underground and at various altitudes above the earth. The results of case studies on four different memory chips show that cosmic rays are an important source of the ionizing radiation that causes soft errors. The results of field testing are used to confirm the accuracy of the modeling and the accelerated testing of chips.
منابع مشابه
Radiation Measurement Technologies for Evaluating Soft Errors
Two radiation measurement technologies for estimating and lowering the occurrence rate of “soft errors” are introduced. Radiation such as fast neutrons (generated by cosmic rays) and α-rays (generated by the impurities in materials composing LSIs) cause incorrect operations—known as soft errors—in computer systems. Since soft errors undermine the reliability of mission-critical products such as...
متن کاملCancer mortality rates and the flux of cosmic ray neutrons appear to share some common features
It is well established experimentally that cosmic ray neutrons are a source of soft errors in silicon based microelectronics. The mechanism which produces the errors appears to be the detection of the high density of charge associated with the production of alpha particles in the semiconductor by the neutrons. In vitro experiments using alpha particles, and an end point of chromosomal rearrange...
متن کاملTesting Neutron-induced Soft Errors in Semiconductor Memories
Advances in VLSI technology have ensured the availability of high performance electronics for a variety of applications. The applications include consumer electronics like cellular phones and HDTVs; automotive electronics like those used in drive-by-wire vehicles, and million dollar servers used for storing and processing sensitive and critical data. These varied applications require not only h...
متن کاملRadiation-induced soft errors in digital circuits A literature survey
The current technical note gives an overview of the available literature on the soft error rate (SER) of semiconductor devices at sea level. The main focus is on SRAM circuits, but other memories and logic are considered also. The radiation sources causing ionizing particles in semiconductors are discussed and the physical mechanisms of the upset of data bits are treated. Reported work on soft ...
متن کاملTime Delays in Cosmic Ray Propagation
Cosmic Rays (CR) travel at speeds essentially indistinguishable from the speed of light. However whilst travelling through magnetic fields, both regular and turbulent, they are delayed behind the light since they are usually charged particles and their paths are not linear. Those delays can be so long that they are an impediment to correctly identifying sources which may be variable in time. Fu...
متن کامل