A computational analysis on the role of low energy proton-induced single event upset in a 65 nm CMOS SRAM

This investigation is a computational analysis of a kind of radiation effect on electronic devices, known as the single event upset (SEU) with the Geant4 toolkit. Accordingly, the results are compared with the similar experimental work and a simulation study which is performed by CRÈME-MC Monte Carlo simulation code. Single event upsets are the most common events which abruptly change the logic state of the device (1 to 0 or vice versa) and cause a disturbance in their performance. In the simulations, low energy protons (< 10 MeV)-induced SEU cross sections in a 65 nm CMOS SRAM were calculated and various particle effectivenesses and physical mechanisms inducing upsets were studied. The analysis of the results showed that most of the upsets occur due to incident protons with energies of less than 1 MeV under the mechanism of direct ionization. This is due to the fact that protons entering the sensitive volume have the maximum stopping power. This study also revealed that for protons with energies between 2 and 10 MeV, recoiled silicon atoms have a dominant role in SEU while other particles produced in preceding layers have a negligible effect compared to the recoiled silicon produced inside the sensitive volume.