Analytic expressions for the critical charge in CMOS static RAM cells
Abstract
An approximate expression is developed for the charge necessary to upset a CMOS static RAM cell, and the effective capacitance of the cell is defined. The minimum charge needed for cell upset is derived in terms of this effective cell capacitance. The results are found to be consistent with those of the simulations that have traditionally been used to analyze the soft error susceptibility of various memory circuits. It is shown that the charge necessary for cell upset is strongly dependent on the amplitude of the current pulse resulting from single particle events; there is no single critical charge value that will upset the cell. The analytic model, coupled with simulations, indicates that current pulse amplitudes are in the range of 5-10 mA.
- Publication:
-
IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
- Pub Date:
- December 1983
- DOI:
- 10.1109/TNS.1983.4333183
- Bibcode:
- 1983ITNS...30.4616J
- Keywords:
-
- Circuit Protection;
- Energetic Particles;
- Flip-Flops;
- Metal Oxide Semiconductors;
- Radiation Tolerance;
- Random Access Memory;
- Capacitance;
- Differential Equations;
- Field Effect Transistors;
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering