Multiple-Cell-Upsets on a commercial 90nm SRAM in Dynamic Mode

Georgios Tsiligiannis (1) , Luigi Dilillo (1) , Alberto Bosio (1) , Patrick Girard (1) , Serge Pravossoudovitch (1) , Aida Todri-Sanial (1) , Arnaud Virazel (1) , Christopher Frost (2) , Frédéric Wrobel (3) , Frédéric Saigné (4, 3)

1 SysMIC - Conception et Test de Systèmes MICroélectroniques
2 ISIS - ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
3 IES - Institut d’Electronique et des Systèmes
4 RADIAC - Radiations et composants

Downscaling of devices increases the Multiple-Cell-Upset (MCU) cross section of SRAMs making them an important threat for the robustness of systems. In this paper we present different types of MCUs as they were recorded during atmospheric-neutron irradiation experiments, while a commercial 90nm SRAM was tested in dynamic mode. This study shows that when the memory is in dynamic mode, not only the typical MCU that involve a few flipped cells may appear but also, large clusters of upsets are possible to occur with hundreds of cells being affected. We identify different patterns of MCUs and categorize them according to their shapes and sizes.

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Georgios Tsiligiannis, Luigi Dilillo, Alberto Bosio, Patrick Girard, Serge Pravossoudovitch, et al.. Multiple-Cell-Upsets on a commercial 90nm SRAM in Dynamic Mode. RADECS: Radiation and Its Effects on Components and Systems, Sep 2013, Oxford, United Kingdom. pp.1-4, ⟨10.1109/RADECS.2013.6937429⟩. ⟨lirmm-00839062⟩