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Title: Energy deposition in gallium arsenide. Final report

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5907162

This report pertains to the single-event-upset phenomena in microelectronic circuits with emphasis on those resulting from nuclear reactions induced by energetic protons. The goal is to understand the detailed physical mechanisms leading to SEUs sufficiently to put calculating SEUs on a sound quantitative basis. The author previously had considerable success in predicting the charge generation in well defined slabs of silicon. The purpose of this contract was to try extending the model and the associated simulation codes to GaAs and to begin the experimental measurements necessary to test them. The Clarkson Nuclear Reaction models were modified to handle proton-induced nuclear reactions in gallium arsenide. The codes were immediately useful in analyzing the significance that the edge-effect phenomena, discovered in microbeam studies of GaAs gates, would play in increasing the SEU rates for GaAs memories. Techniques were developed using these codes for calculating SEU rates for select circuits flown in space. Two of these circuits, the 2901B and the 93L422, are responsible for SEU problems aboard US satellites. Charge-collection Measurements were carried out using the GaAs Fat-FET test structures from the Rockwell memories.

Research Organization:
Clarkson Univ., Potsdam, NY (USA)
OSTI ID:
5907162
Report Number(s):
AD-A-162823/9/XAB
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English