A Correlation Study of SRAM SEU Cross Sections Between 1064-nm Laser and Heavy-Ion Testing

This paper investigates the correlation of specifically Single-Event-Upset (SEU) cross sections (XSs) obtained from 1064 nm laser and those from heavy-ion testing. In particular, the impacts of a laser scanning step size, laser spot size, and a method for correlating the 1064 nm laser incident energy to heavy-ion LET are examined using SRAM cells fabricated with 28 nm planar technology and 12 nm FinFET technology. The results indicate that the SEU XSs obtained from the laser testing agree reasonably well with those from heavy-ion testing, although a slight overestimation in the high LET range is observed with larger scanning step sizes due to laser spot-size effects. In the low LET region, the 1064 nm laser SEU XSs underestimate those of heavy-ion testing, regardless of the laser scanning step sizes. The GEO error rate estimated from the laser testing is approximately four times lower than that obtained from heavy-ion testing for both 12 nm FinFET and 28 nm Planar SRAM technologies.