Soft error immunity in a DRAM investigated by nuclear microprobes

Abstract A nuclear microprobe has, for the first time, been used to investigate local sensitivity of structures in the 16 Mbit dynamic random access memory (DRAM) against incident particles. Both bit state mapping and secondary electron images of investigated areas were obtained in situ for identification of radiation sensitive areas. Both cell mode and bit line mode soft errors caused by ions incident in a DRAM could be directly monitored.