Multi-physics modelling contributions to investigate the atmospheric cosmic rays on the single event upset sensitivity along the scaling trend of CMOS technologies

Abstract

Particles originating from primary cosmic radiation, which hit the Earth's atmosphere give rise to a complex field of secondary particles. These particles include neutrons, protons, muons, pions, etc. Since the 1980s it has been known that terrestrial cosmic rays can penetrate the natural shielding of buildings, equipment and circuit package and induce soft errors in integrated circuits. Recently, research has shown that commercial static random access memories are now so small and sufficiently sensitive that single event upsets (SEUs) may be induced from the electronic stopping of a proton. With continued advancements in process size, this downward trend in sensitivity is expected to continue. Then, muon soft errors have been predicted for nano-electronics. This paper describes the effects in the specific cases such as neutron-, proton- and muon-induced SEU observed in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor. The results will allow investigating the technology node sensitivity along the scaling trend.

Impact of Ground-Level Enhancement (GLE) Solar Events on Soft Error Rate for Avionics

“…The fluxes of particles at subsonic flight levels (12 km) are about 300 times greater than at sea level whereas at 18 km, they are about 500 times more intense. Therefore, electronic systems are exposed to secondary CRs at altitude aircraft [3]- [6]. On the other hand, the geomagnetic field provides greater shielding at the equator than at the poles and the secondary radiation increases by about a factor of five between the equator and latitudes of around 60 degrees beyond which the levels flatten off with increasing latitude.…”