Single event effect characterization of new technology integrated circuits.

摘要

This dissertation evaluates the parallel trends towards increased device susceptibility to Single Event Effects (SEE) and toward the application of commercial new technology semiconductor devices to space systems as well as airborne avionics. This effort is directed toward testing and analysis of commercial devices, establishing an electronic dialog among leaders in the field and simulation of basic circuit design solutions that could be applied commercially. Economic considerations and the desire for state of the art functionality are prime drivers toward the use of commercial grade devices for space and airborne systems. As device geometry shrinks, the specific capacitance decreases and thus the critical charge for a single event effect is reduced. Therefore, it is expected that Single Event Effects will become an important problem in terrestrial environment applications of the commercial devices. Our work shows that some old concepts in SEE characterization are no longer suitable for new technology integrated circuits. Some new SEE phenomena have been discovered during our test. A new SEE characterization model has been developed to better understand the problems. Laser simulation system has been developed and used for single event effect testing, and although it can not be considered as a substitute for heavy ion testing, it can be a great help for the design of radiation hardened integrated circuits.