SILICON MOSFETS

SINGLE EVENT UPSETS (SEUS) INDUCED BY IONIZING RADIATION CONSTITUTE ONE OF THE MOST PRESSING PROBLEMS OF SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY. AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHYSICAL MECHANISMS ASSOCIATED WITH CHARGE COLLECTION HAS ALREADY FURTHERED THE DEVELOPMENT OF HARDENING PROCEDURES.THIS UNDERSTANDING HAS DEVELOPED IN LARGE PART THROUGH IMPLEMENTATION OF TRANSIENT NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF SEUS. HOWEVER, AT PRESENT, THERE EXISTS WITHIN THE UNITED STATES ENGINEERING AND SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY, A STUMBLING BLOCK TO THE FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF EFFICIENT METHODS OF HARDENING. THIS STUMBLING BLOCK IS THE ABSENCE OF A THREE DIMENTIONAL ALGORITHM THAT SIMULTANEOUSLY SATISFIES THE FOLLOWING TWO CRITERIA: (1) THE ABILITY TO PERFORM THREE DIMENSIONAL TRANSIENT SIMULATIONS OF SEUS, AND (2) THE CAPABILITY OF PERFORMING THESE SIMULATIONS WITHIN AN ACCEPTABLE TIME FRAME. THIS CAPABILITY EXISTS IN JAPAN AS A RECENT STUDY INDICATES. THE ENCLOSED PROPOSAL DESCRIBES A PROGRAM FOR VECTORIZING AN EXISTING THREE-DIMENSIONAL TRANSIENT ALGORITHM WITH A DEMONSTRATED CAPABILITY OF STUDYING THE TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF SEMICONDUCTORS TO INCIDENT IONIZING RADIATION. VECTORRIZATION WILL REDUCE RUN TIME BY AT LEAST AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE, THEREBY MAKING THE ALGORITHM OF PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF HARDENING PROCEDURES. THE FEASIBILITY OF THE VECTOR THREE DIMENSIONAL TRANSIENT SEU ALGORITHM WILL BE DEMONSTRATED BY STUDYING THE RESPONSE OF A SILICON MOSFET TO INCIDENT IONIZING RADIATION.