Study of total dose effect on semiconductor devices

This memorandum describes single event phenomena of power MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) - FET (Field Effect Transistor) and SRAM (Static Random Access Memory), and total dose resistance of 256 k bit EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory). The single event is a phenomenon that causes permanent failure and malfunction by a single high energy heavy atom entering into a semiconductor device. This study evaluated power MOS-FET and SRAM for Single Event Burnout (SEB) and Single Event Latchup (SEL) using newly developed Energetic Particle Induced Charge Spectroscopy (EPICS). As a result, influence of LET (Linear Energy Transfer) on avalanche effect and phenomena relating with nuclear reaction/recoil were observed, and mechanism of SEB was suggested. In addition, SEL occurrence probability was determined in wide range of LET using an accelerator of heavy ions. This study evaluated total dose effect of EEPROM, and malfunction site and the total dose mechanism were proposed. However, the total dose resistance was not sufficient to be used in outer space. Because it will require enormous change of processes to improve this device, and because degeneration of peripheral circuits were too fast to be evaluated, development of space ROM (Read Only Memory) seems to be difficult in this stage.