Y. Tosaka et al., MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF NEUTRON-INDUCED SOFT ERRORS IN SUB-HALF-MICRON CMOS CIRCUITS, I.E.E.E. transactions on electron devices, 45(7), 1998, pp. 1453-1458
Neutron-induced soft error rates (SER's) of sub-half-micron CMOS SRAM
and Latch circuits were studied both experimentally and analytically t
o investigate cosmic ray neutron-induced soft errors (SE's), Because t
he neutron beam used in the measurement has an energy spectrum similar
to that of sea-level atmospheric neutrons, our SER data corresponds t
o those induced by cosmic ray neutrons. The alpha-particle induced SER
's were also measured for comparison with the neutron-induced SER's, N
eutron-induced SE's occurred in both circuits. On the other hand, alph
a-induced SE's occurred in SRAM, but not in the Latch circuits. The me
asured SER's agreed with simulated results. We discussed the significa
nce of how cosmic ray neutrons affects CMOS circuits at ground level.