Radiation Effects on Emerging Electronic
Materials and Devices
Ron Schrimpf
Vanderbilt University
Institute for Space and Defense Electronics
Team Members
• Vanderbilt University
– Electrical Engineering: Dan Fleetwood, Marcus Mendenhall, Lloyd
Massengill, Robert Reed, Ron Schrimpf, Bob Weller
– Physics: Len Feldman, Sok Pantelides
• Arizona State University
– Electrical Engineering: Hugh Barnaby
• University of Florida
– Electrical and Computer Engineering: Mark Law, Scott Thompson
• Georgia Tech
– Electrical and Computer Engineering: John Cressler
• North Carolina State University
– Physics: Gerry Lucovsky
• Rutgers University
– Chemistry: Eric Garfunkel, Evgeni Gusev
Institute for Space and Defense
Electronics
Resource to support national requirements in radiation
effects analysis and rad-hard design
Bring academic resources/expertise and real-world
engineering to bear on system-driven needs
ISDE provides:
• Government and industry radiation-effects resource
– Modeling and simulation
– Design support: rad models, hardening by design
– Technology support: assessment, characterization
• Flexible staffing driven by project needs
– Faculty
– Graduate students
– Professional, non-tenured engineering staff
Radiation Effects on Emerging
Electronic Materials and Devices
• More changes in IC technology and materials
in past five years than previous forty years
– SiGe, SOI, strained Si, alternative dielectrics, new
metallization systems, ultra-small devices…
• Future space and defense systems require
understanding radiation effects in advanced
technologies
– Changes in device geometry and materials affect
energy deposition, charge collection, circuit upset,
parametric degradation…
Approach
• Experimental analysis of radiation response
of devices and materials fabricated in
university labs and by industrial partners
• First-principles quantum mechanical analysis
of radiation-induced defects  physically
based engineering models
• Development and application of a
fundamentally new multi-scale simulation
approach
• Validation of simulation through
experiments
Virtual Irradiation
• Fundamentally new approach for simulating radiation
effects
• Applicable to all tasks
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are needed to see this picture.
Physically Based Simulation of
Radiation Events
• High energy protons incident on advanced CMOS integrated
circuit
• Interaction with metallization layers dramatically increases
energy deposition
Device Description
Radiation Events
Hierarchical Multi-Scale
Analysis of Radiation Effects
Materials
Device Structure
IC Design
Energy
Deposition
Defect Models
Device Simulation
Circuit Response
Current Joint Program of ISDE/VU and CFDRC
“Improved Understanding of Space Radiation Effects
in Exploration Electronics by Advanced Modeling of
Nanoscale Devices and Novel Materials”
STTR Phase I Project, sponsored by NASA Ames (2005):
Program Objectives:
 Couple Vanderbilt Geant4 and CFDRC NanoTCAD 3D Device Solver
 Adaptive/dynamic 3D meshing for multiple ion tracks
 Statistically meaningful runs on a massively parallel computing cluster
3D device simulation
 Integrated and automated interface of Geant4 and CFDRC NanoTCAD
Geant4
- accurate model
of radiation event
- Adaptive
3D meshing
- Physics based
transient response
- 3D Nanoscale transport
ion str ike
He ion, LET=1. 18, R=0. 02um
He ion, P- sub Contact
1.E-03
e-
p
Blue =
+ ions
8.E-04
Drain
Current
(A)
C ion, LET=5.06, R=0.06um
C ion, P-sub C ontact
0.13um NMOS, Vd = 1.2 V, Vg = 0V
Two different ion strikes
Psub Contact / No-Contact
6.E-04
4.E-04
n
2.E-04
Time (s)
0.E+00
1.E-12
1.E-11
1.E-10
1.E-09
1.E-08
1.E-07
1.E-06
Research Plan
• Tasks defined and scheduled
Organization by Task
• Radiation response of new materials
– NCSU, Rutgers, Vanderbilt
• Impact of new device technologies on radiation
response
– ASU, Florida, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt
• Single-event effects in new technologies and ultrasmall devices
– Florida, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt
• Displacement-damage and total-dose effects in ultrasmall devices
– ASU, Vanderbilt
Radiation Response of New
Materials
•
•
•
•
•
HfO2-based dielectrics and emerging high-k materials
Metal gates
Interface engineering (thickness & composition)
Hydrogen and nitrogen at SiON interfaces (NBTI)
Substrate engineering (strained Si, Si orientations,
Si/SiGe, SOI)
• Defects in nanoscale devices
• Energy deposition via Radsafe/MRED
Impact of new device technologies
on radiation response
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
SiGe HBTs
Strained Si CMOS
Ultra-small bulk CMOS
Mobility in ultra-thin film SOI MOSFETs
TID response in scaled SOI CMOS
Multiple gate/FinFET devices
Multi-scale hierarchical analysis of single-event
effects
Single-event effects in new technologies
and ultra-small devices
• Development/application of integrated simulation tool
suite
– Applications in all tasks
•
•
•
•
•
Effects of passivation/metallization on SEE
Tensor-dependent transport for SEE
Extreme event analysis
Spatial and energy distribution of e-h pairs
Energy deposition in small device volumes
Displacement-damage and totaldose effects in ultra-small devices
•
•
•
•
Physical models of displacement single events
Microdose/displacement SEE in SiGe and CMOS devices
Single-transistor defect characterization
Link energy deposition to defects through DFT molecular
dynamics
• Multiple-device displacement events
• Dielectric leakage/rupture
10
2.6 nm
(Equiv.
Oxide
Thick. )
Al2O3
VBD (V)
8
3.3 nm
SiO2(15%N)
5.4 nm
3.3 nm
(Physical)
SiO2
Al2O3
6
2.2 nm
SiO2
SiO2
4
Data From Sexton at al . 1998
2
'06
'03
'01
'97
VDD from National Technology Roadmaps
'09
0
0
5
10
Film Thickness (nm)
15
20
Collaborators
• IBM
– SiGe, CMOS, metal gate,
high-k
• Intel
– Strained Si and Ge
channels, tri-gate, high-k,
metal gate
• Texas Instruments
– CMOS
• Freescale
– BiCMOS and SOI
• Jazz
– SiGe
• National
– SiGe
• SRC/Sematech
– CMOS, metal gate, high-k,
FinFETs
• Sandia Labs
– Alternative dielectrics,
thermally stimulated current
• NASA/DTRA
– Radiation-effects testing
• Oak Ridge National
Laboratory
– Atomic-scale imaging
• CFDRC
– Software development