Abstract: This paper investigates the terrestrial radiation impacts on the soft error (SE) sensitivity along the very large-scale integration (VLSI) roadmap of bulk, FDSOI and finFET nano-scale technologies thanks to MUSCA SEP3 tool. The terrestrial radiations considered in this work include neutrons, protons, muon particles and alpha-emitters.
The results indicate that protons and muons must be taken into account for ground environments. However, significant differences were observed for bulk, FDSOI and FinFET technologies. The downscaling induces an increase in SEU susceptibility to radiation. An overall analysis indicates that the SER does not increase drastically with the technological integration, and for the three technologies considered. Moreover, the results show that FDSOI and FinFET technologies provide resistance to ionizing radiation effects due to narrow sensitive volumes. At the ground altitudes, the total SER ranges from 103 and 104 FIT/Mbit for the planar bulk technology while it ranges from 102 and 103 FIT/Mbit for the FDSOI and FinFET technologies.
Results and analyses show that for the avionic altitude, the neutron and/or the proton environments induce the main contribution to the total SER, however the muon and -SER impacts are negligible. For the 45-nm technological node (all types), the neutron contribution is around 60 to 70 % of the total SER. Concerning the ground altitude, -SER is the main contribution down to the 28-nm node. Typically, the a-SER is around a few hundred to a thousand FIT/Mbit. Moreover, results suggest muon-induced upset does affect the soft error rate from 32-nm SRAM operated at nominal supply voltage, and they have a significant impact for circuits fabricated in smaller process technologies (22-nm and 14-nm). In addition, results show that muon impact can be the main contribution from 22-nm and beyond. Then, future terrestrial error rate predictions will require characterizations of the linear energy transfer (LET) threshold, consideration of the muon and/or proton environments.