Radiation Effects in Semiconductor Electronics

Radiation-effects modeling community has experienced a growing need for mixed-mode simulation capabilities when analyzing advanced semiconductor technologies. Space Micro Inc. and Silvaco International have worked closely to enable and test radiation-effects modeling capabilities in Silvaco's TCAD simulation framework in the past. This simulation framework also includes 2D- and 3D-mixed mode simulators targeted at commercial technologies but lacks the physics and computational stability/efficiency needed to address radiation-hardening methodologies for DoD strategic and commercial space applications. In addressing the current solicitation, we propose to implement physical radiation-effects models in Silvaco's MixedMode-3D software and, during Phase I, demonstrate the ability to address a set of key radiation hardening issues in digital CMOS/SOI technologies that cannot be analyzed using existing software. This innovation represents a cost-effective and rapid development method for radiation-effects-aware 3D mixed-mode modeling tools and will provide a path for rapid deployment of traditional radiation-hardening techniques into the design flow of advanced commercial as well as DoD-dedicated foundries.