Single Event Effects in the Nano Era

Abstract

Scaling of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies to the sub-100 nm dimension regime increase the sensitivity to pervasive terrestrial radiation. Diminishing levels of charge associated with information in electronic circuits, interactions of multiple transistors due to tight packing densities, and high circuit clock speeds make single event effects (SEE) a reliability consideration for advanced electronics. The trend to adapt and apply commercial IC processes for space and defense applications has provided a catalyst to the development of infrastructure for analysis and mitigation that can be leveraged for advanced commercial electronic devices. In particular, modeling and simulation, leveraging the dramatic reduction in computing cost and increase in computing power, can be used to analyze the response of electronics to radiation, to develop and evaluate mitigation approaches, and to calculate the frequency of problematic events for target applications and environments. Int. J. Hi. Spe. Ele. Syst. 2008.18:815-824. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com by NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY on 08/21/15. For personal use only. 816 M. L. Alles et al.