Single event effects qualificatoin of integrated circuits

The goal of qualification or monitoring of electronic device radiation testings is to ensure that devices meet the set of requirements. In some cases, this can be achieved without full characterization of radiation behavior, which leads to significant cost reduction of radiation testing. In this paper, we propose an approach to determining the test standards for evaluating the compliance of integrated circuits with the requirements for radiation hardness under heavy charged particle fluxes in outer space, set as restrictions on the frequency of single radiation effects (SER). The SER calculation is based on the known cosmic rays spectrum and effect’s cross-section dependence on linear energy transfer (LET) obtained during radiation testing. The SEE qualification based on test results for just one LET value is performed using additional conservative limits on saturated cross-section and threshold LET values. Analysis of compendium of experimental data has shown that for main SEE types these limiting values can be set as 3 MeVcm 2 /mg for threshold LET and 30% of chip surface area for saturated cross-section. Those assumptions allows us to calculate fluence and ion LET value required for part qualification for the required SER values. The proposed approach can be used to justify test requirements for SEE testing of integrated circuits.