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The effects of 10-keV X-rays and 400-keV endpoint-energy bremsstrahlung X-rays on MOS capacitors with SiO2 or HfO2 gate dielectrics and Al and TaSi gate metallization have been studied using the Monte Carlo simulator, MRED. We compare these calculations with previous results in the literature obtained with other Monte Carlo and discrete ordinates codes, and with experiments on devices with SiO2 gate dielectrics, and find generally good agreement. There is a significant dose reduction in thin HfO2 layers exposed to 10-keV X-rays, when the HfO2 is surrounded by lower-Z materials (e.g., Si, Al). This dose reduction does not occur in a medium-energy bremsstrahlung X-ray environment; in that case, the dose in a HfO2 gate dielectric can be \sim10 times higher than the dose in a SiO2 dielectric, for the same incident X-ray fluence. These results demonstrate the capability of MRED to assist in the evaluation of dose enhancement and reduction in regions including or nearby high-Z materials in microelectronic materials and devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The RADSAFE simulation framework is described and applied to model SEU in a 0.25 µm CMOS 4 Mbit SRAM. For this circuit, the RADSAFE approach produces trends similar to those expected from classical rectangular parallelepiped models, but more closely represents the physical mechanisms responsible for SEU in the SRAM circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon carbide (SiC) power metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) are space-ready in terms of typical reliability measures. However, single event burnout (SEB) due to heavy-ion irradiation often occurs at voltages 50% or lower than specified breakdown. Failure rates in space are estimated for burnout of 1200 V devices based on the experimental data for burnout and the expected heavy-ion linear energy transfer (LET) spectrum in space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]