We report low-energy proton and low-energy alpha particle single-event effects (SEE) data on a 32 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) latches and static random access memory (SRAM) that demonstrates the criticality of using low-energy protons for SEE testing of highly-scaled technologies. Low-energy protons produced a significantly higher fraction of multi-bit upsets relative to single-bit upsets when compared to similar alpha particle data. This difference highlights the importance of performing hardness assurance testing with protons that include energy distribution components below 2 megaelectron-volt. The importance of low-energy protons to system-level single-event performance is based on the technology under investigation as well as the target radiation environment

Berg, Melanie D.

Castaneda, Carlos M.

Dodds, Nathaniel A.

Gordon, Michael S.

Kim, Hak S.

LaBel, Kenneth A.

Marshall, Paul W.

Pellish, Jonathan A.

Phan, Anthony M.

Rodbell, Kenneth P.

Schwank, James R.

Seidleck, Christina M.

NASA Technical Reports Server

Criticality of Low-Energy Protons in Single-Event Effects Testing of Highly-Scaled Technologies

Pellish, J. A.

Rodbell, K. P.

Phan, A. M.

Berg, M. D.

Kim, H. S.

Marshall, P. W.

Dodds, N. A.

Castaneda, C. M.

Schwank, J. R.

Gordon, M. S.

Seidleck, C. M.

LaBel, K. A.

To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
Criticality of Low-Energy Protons in 
Single-Event Effects Testing of 
Highly-Scaled Technologies 
J. A. Pellish1, P. W. Marshall2, K. P. Rodbell3, M. S. Gordon3, 
K. A. LaBel1, J. R. Schwank4, N. A. Dodds4, C. M. Castaneda5, M. D. Berg6, 
H. S. Kim6, A. M. Phan6, and C. M. Seidleck6 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
www.nasa.gov 
Sandia is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States 
Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. 
1: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA 
2: NASA consultant, Brookneal, VA USA 
3: IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY USA 
4: Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM USA 
5: University of California at Davis, Davis, CA USA 
6: ASRC Space & Defense, Greenbelt, MD USA 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140017830 2019-08-31T14:27:18+00:00Z
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
Outline 
 Introduction 
– Low-energy protons (LEPs) 
– Test facility setup 
 Protons vs. alphas 
 DUT is 32 nm SOI CMOS 
128 Mb SRAM 
– DUT is in a flip-chip package 
– Beam enters through substrate 
 SBU and MCU SRAM data 
 Die thickness reverse 
engineering with SRIM 
 Summary 
2 
Test board 
User-Controlled Degrader Foil Chamber 
UC Davis CNL Test Setup 
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
Objective 
 Question: 
– If low-energy proton (LEP) single-event effects 
(SEE) are due to direct ionization of the primary 
particle, are there alternative ions for LEP 
hardness assurance testing? 
 Hypothesis: 
– Alpha particles can replace LEPs for direct 
ionization single-event effects testing. 
 Our contention: 
– LEPs produce unique SEE signatures and cannot 
be replaced by alpha particles or other likely high-
energy light heavy ion candidates. 
3 
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
Early Low-Energy Proton Data 
4 
 First documented in 2007 (K. P. Rodbell et al., IEEE TNS, vol. 6, 
2007). 
 Cross sections are plotted as a function of incident proton 
energy – inversely proportional to degrader thickness. 
– Several implications: changes to the energy distribution shape, flux 
depletion near end-of-range, etc. 
D. F. Heidel et al., IEEE TNS, vol. 6, 2008. B. D. Sierawski et al., IEEE TNS, vol. 6, 2009. 
65 nm bulk SRAM 
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
The Alpha (4He) Alternative 
 Hypothesis: Alpha particles can replace LEPs 
for direct ionization single-event effects testing. 
5 
NIST ASTAR/PSTAR tool (ICRU Report 49, 1993). 
In the context of LEPs, mentioned as early as 2009 – B. D. Sierawski et al., including J. Pellish. 
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
30 MeV Alpha SEU Data 
0x0000 Pattern 
6 
Error bars, if shown, are at the 90% confidence level. 
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
6.5 MeV Proton SEU Data 
0x0000 Pattern 
7 
Error bars, if shown, are at the 90% confidence level. 
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
Data Comparison – Side-by-Side 
8 
Alpha Proton 
– On the low-energy side of the Bragg peak, the cross 
sections are similar, but the type of events are not. 
– One of the key features is the separation between SBUs 
and DBUs. 
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
Alpha & Proton DBU Fraction 
9 
Shows both 0x0000 and 0xFFFF data patterns; includes multiplicity of DBU events. 
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
Conclusions 
 At this point, there appears to be no suitable 
proxy for the observed single-event effects 
produced by low-energy protons in highly-
scaled technologies. 
– While alpha particle and proton SBU behavior appears 
to be proportional to LET, the MCU behavior is not. 
 Implications for radiation hardness assurance. 
– May be more room for compromise at CMOS 
technology nodes > 65 nm. 
 Additional analysis techniques are covered in 
the manuscript and indicate several techniques 
to aid data reduction. 
– Many technologies are flip-chip (such as our SRAM 
DUT), and die thickness uncertainty has always been 
one of the larger sources of systematic error. 
10 
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
Acknowledgements 
 IBM Corp. 
 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 
Radiation Effects and Analysis Group 
 NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging 
Program 
 Defense Threat Reduction Agency
 National Reconnaissance Office 
11 
Questions? 
To be presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, Paris, France, July 14-18, 2014. 
Acronyms 
 CMOS: complementary metal oxide 
semiconductor 
 CNL: Crocker Nuclear Laboratory 
 CSDA: continuous slowing down 
approximation 
 DBU: double-bit upset 
 DUT: device under test 
 IBM YKT: Yorktown Heights, NY 
 ICRU: International Commission on 
Radiation Units & Measurements 
 IEEE: Institute of Electrical and 
Electronics Engineers 
 IUCF: Indiana University Cyclotron 
Facility 
 LBNL: Lawrence Berkeley National 
Laboratory 
 LEP: low-energy proton 
 MCU: multi-cell upset (errors not 
necessarily in the same data word) 
– Different from multi-bit upset (MBU) 
 NIST: National Institute of Standards 
and Technology 
– ASTAR and PSTAR are NIST tools, not 
acronyms 
 NPTC: Northeast Proton Therapy 
Center 
 SBU: single-bit upset 
 SEEM: secondary electron emission 
monitor 
 SEU: single-event upset 
 SOI: silicon on insulator 
 SRAM: static random access memory 
 SRIM: Stopping and Range of Ions in 
Matter (software program) 
 TNS: Transactions on Nuclear 
Science 
 TRIUMF: not an acronym – formerly 
the Tri-University Meson Facility, 
Vancouver, Canada 
 UC Davis: University of California at 
Davis 
12 


We report low-energy proton and alpha particle SEE data on a 32 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) static random access memory (SRAM) that demonstrates the criticality of understanding and using low-energy protons for SEE testing of highly-scaled technologie

Pellish, Jonathan Allen

Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Criticality of Low-Energy Protons in
Single-Event Effects Testing of
Highly-Scaled Technologies
J. A. Pellish1, P. W. Marshall2, K. P. Rodbell3, M. S. Gordon3,
K. A. LaBel1, J. R. Schwank4, N. A. Dodds4, C. M. Castaneda5, M. D. Berg6,
H. S. Kim6, A. M. Phan6, and C. M. Seidleck6
National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration
Sandia is a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States 
Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.
1: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA
2: NASA consultant, Brookneal, VA USA
3: IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY USA
4: Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM USA
5: University of California at Davis, Davis, CA USA
6: ASRC Federal Space & Defense, Greenbelt, MD USA
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140008984 2019-08-31T20:16:10+00:00Z
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Acronyms
• CMOS: complementary metal oxide 
semiconductor
• CNL: Crocker Nuclear Laboratory
• CSDA: continuous slowing down 
approximation
• DBU: double-bit upset
• DUT: device under test
• IBM YKT: Yorktown Heights, NY
• ICRU: International Commission on 
Radiation Units & Measurements
• IEEE: Institute of Electrical and 
Electronics Engineers
• IUCF: Indiana University Cyclotron 
Facility
• LBNL: Lawrence Berkeley National 
Laboratory
• LEP: low-energy proton
• MCU: multi-cell upset (errors not 
necessarily in the same data word)
– Different from multi-bit upset (MBU)
• NIST: National Institute of Standards 
and Technology
– ASTAR and PSTAR are NIST tools, not 
acronyms
• NPTC: Northeast Proton Therapy 
Center
• SBU: single-bit upset
• SEEM: secondary electron emission 
monitor
• SEU: single-event upset
• SOI: silicon on insulator
• SRAM: static random access memory
• SRIM: Stopping and Range of Ions in 
Matter (software program)
• TNS: Transactions on Nuclear 
Science
• TRIUMF: not an acronym – formerly 
the Tri-University Meson Facility, 
Vancouver, Canada
• UC Davis: University of California at 
Davis
2
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Outline
• Introduction
– Low-energy protons (LEPs)
– Test facility setup
• Protons vs. alphas
• DUT is 32 nm SOI CMOS 
128 Mb SRAM
– Heavy ion data baseline
– DUT is in a flip-chip package
• SBU and MCU SRAM data
• Die thickness reverse 
engineering with SRIM
• Summary
3
Test board
User-Controlled Degrader Foil Chamber
UC Davis CNL Test Setup
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Early Low-Energy Proton Data
4
• Cross sections are plotted as a function of incident proton energy –
inversely proportional to degrader thickness.
– Several implications: changes to the energy distribution shape, flux depletion near 
end-of-range, etc.
– Can plot data as a function of degrader thickness.
• How do we know the mean energy and standard deviation?
D. F. Heidel et al., IEEE TNS, vol. 6, 2008. B. D. Sierawski et al., IEEE TNS, vol. 6, 2009.
65 nm bulk SRAM
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
The Problem with LEPs – Range & dE/dx
• Greatest effect in the shortest distance
• Short range in region of interest implies flux depletion
• Cross sections tend to be uncorrected for flux loss and plotted as a function of known 
quantities (e.g., degrader thickness)
5
NIST PSTAR tool (ICRU Report 49, 1993).
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
The Alpha (4He) Alternative
• Hypothesis: Alpha particles can replace LEPs 
for direct ionization single-event effects testing.
6
4He starts at 30 MeV
H+ starts at 6.5 MeV
- CNL uses
~13 MeV H2+ to
generate LEPs
NIST ASTAR/PSTAR tool (ICRU Report 49, 1993).
In the context of LEPs, mentioned as early as 2009 – B. D. Sierawski et al., including J. Pellish.
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
UC Davis Crocker Nuclear Laboratory
• Beam diameter on 0.25 mil Ta 
foil is ~5/16 in.
• Defining collimator is 2.75 in 
with acceptance angle of 
0.018 rad.
• Secondary electron emission 
monitor (SEEM) uses three 
0.25 mil Al foils.
• User-selected degraders can 
be Al or Mylar.
• Exit window is 5 mil Kapton.
• Air gap is user-selected 
within experimental 
parameters.
7
Courtesy of T. Essert and M. Van de Water (UCD/CNL).
Assuming Setup In-Air (can do vacuum)
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
30 MeV Alpha SEU Data
0x0000 Pattern
8
Error bars, if shown, are at the 90% confidence level.
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
6.5 MeV Proton SEU Data
0x0000 Pattern
9
Error bars, if shown, are at the 90% confidence level.
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Data Comparison – Side-by-Side
10
Alpha Proton
– On the low-energy side of the Bragg peak, the cross 
sections are similar, but the type of events are not.
– One of the key features is the separation between SBUs 
and DBUs.
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Alpha & Proton DBU Fraction
11
Shows both 0x0000 and 0xFFFF data patterns.
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Physical Failure Maps – Alphas
0x0000 Pattern
12
In legend – MBU = MCU
– 30 MeV primary
– No user degrader
– Actual alpha energy below 
primary tune
– Only 14 total MCUs
– All DBUs
– 4 on left, 10 on right
– For alpha/proton comparison, 
remember, these plots are 
absolute event counts.
– Total fluence and LET 
dependencies.
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Physical Failure Maps – Protons
0x0000 Pattern
13
– 6.5 MeV primary
– No user degrader
– Actual proton energy below 
primary tune
– 32 total MCUs
– 13 on left, 19 on right
– Most MCUs are word-line DBUs
– One 3-bit MCU and one 4-bit 
MCU – both word line
– For alpha/proton comparison, 
remember, these plots are 
absolute event counts.
– Total fluence and LET 
dependencies.
In legend – MBU = MCU
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Incorporation of SRIM Simulations
to Calculate Die Thickness
• Fail mapping can be 
used to isolate areas 
of interest for 
analysis.
• Beam stopping 
degrader
thickness can
be used to
“back out”
silicon die
thickness.
14
Calculated Energy Distribution
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Summary
• Low-energy proton testing is challenging.
• At this point, there appears to be no suitable 
proxy for the observed single-event effects 
produced by low-energy protons.
– While alpha particle and proton SBU behavior seems 
to be proportional to LET, the MCU behavior is not.
• There are subsequent implications for radiation hardness 
assurance.
– May be more room for compromise at CMOS 
technology nodes > 65 nm.
• Additional analysis techniques presented to aid 
data reduction efforts.
– Many technologies are flip-chip (such as our SRAM 
DUT), and die thickness uncertainty has always been 
one of the larger sources of systematic error.
15
Deliverable to NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program to be published on nepp.nasa.gov originally presented by Jonathan A. Pellish at the Single Event Effects (SEE) Symposium 
and the Military and Aerospace Programmable Logic Devices (MAPLD) Workshop, La Jolla, CA, May 19-22, 2014.
Acknowledgements
• NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging 
Program
• Defense Threat Reduction Agency
• National Reconnaissance Office
16
Questions?


Criticality of Low-Energy Protons in Single-Event Effects Testing of Highly-Scaled Technologies

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