Characterization of Single-Event Transient Pulse Quenching among Dummy Gate Isolated Logic Nodes in 65 nm Twin-Well and Triple-Well

As chip technologies scale down in size, a single high-energy ion strike often affects multiple adjacent logic nodes. The so-called pulse quenching effect, induced by single-event charge sharing collection, has been widely explored in efforts to find mitigation techniques for single-event transients (SETs) or single-event upsets (SEUs), and the dummy gate isolation has been proven to be an efficient layout technique for pulse quenching enhancement. In this paper, the characterization of SET pulse quenching among dummy gate isolated logic nodes is performed in 65 nm twin-well and triple-well CMOS technologies. Four groups of heavy ion experiments are explored for the characterization, and the pulse quenching effect is quantitatively analyzed in detail. The pulse quenching effects show different characteristics in twin-well and triple-well CMOS technologies. charge sharing collection should be intentionally increased, so as to enhance the pulse quenching effect. Previous works have demonstrated that the circuit layout topology has a significant impact on SET mitigation (9)-(15), consequently, several novel layout techniques have been explored for SET and SEU mitiga- tionviapulsequenchingenhancement(16)-(18).Intheseinves- tigations, the dummy gate isolation layout has been proven to be a clever design to enhance the pulse quenching, and it appears thatSETsandSEUsareefficientlymitigatedinthecircuitswhen the logic nodes are isolated by the dummy gates. However, the characterization of SET pulse quenching in NMOS or PMOS using dummy gate isolation is still rarely reported, the studies will provide important experimental data for SET hardening de- sign. In this paper, four groups of heavy ion experiments for four independent components in the test chip are explored for the characterization of pulse quenching. These components are de- signed with the same circuit schematic but different layouts to remove different key factors which determine the degree of pulse quenching. When compared with the results recorded in heavy ion experiments, pulse quenching effect is quantitatively analyzed.