MODELING CHARGE COLLECTION AND SINGLE EVENT UPSETS IN MICROELECTRONICS

Single event upsets (SEU) result when modern microelectronic circuits are exposed to energetic charged particles in space, around accelerators and in the various natural or manmade radiation environments encountered by computers on earth. Estimating a circuit's SEU sensitivity at an early stage of system design requires detailed understanding of the physical phenomena through which upsets are induced, the localized generation of charge, its collection at the SEU-sensitive junction and the circuit's response. The amount of charge collected depends on the contribution from drift, field funneling and diffusion as well the removal of charge through recombination. Decreasing the area of the junction through improvements in lithography increases the complexity of the charge collection in a way which significantly complicates modeling.