Study single event effects in logic circuits with 28nm CMOS bulk and SOI technologies

在过去的四十年里，硅技术的规模通过提高晶体管密度和工作频率，同时降低了每晶体管的成本和能耗，显著地改进了集成电路(IC)。然而，硅工艺的规模化使集成电路更容易受到高能粒子引起的单粒子效应(SEE)的影响。在设计良好的集成电路中，无论是在地面环境还是在高空或空间环境中，由声表面波引起的软误差似乎都是最麻烦的。存储单元是数字系统中软差错的主要来源之一，对于不同供应商的设计，软差错率可以有3个数量级的差异。绝缘体上硅(SOI)工艺已成为降低电子系统软误码率的一种很有前途的技术。拟议项目的目标是开发采用最先进的CMOS技术制造的容错逻辑电路，以降低思科交换机和其他电子产品的软错误率。我们将在先进的体工艺和SOI工艺(28 nm工艺)中研究SEE，并致力于开发容错数字存储和感测电路。将使用包括布局和设计技术在内的各种技术来开发容错存储单元。将使用设备和原理图模拟工具进行调查，以便有效地开发缓解SEE的方法。制作的测试芯片将用脉冲激光、重离子、质子和中子束进行测试，以验证设计的有效性。来自不同测试机构的结果也将相互关联。一名PDF、两名博士生和一名母校学生将接受培训，以推动技术进步并与行业合作伙伴密切合作。研究成果将产生专利技术，并在相关期刊和会议上发表文章。加拿大行业合作伙伴(思科加拿大)可以采用该项目开发的技术来提高其产品(如交换机和线路卡)的可靠性。该项目还将加强萨斯喀彻温省大学研究小组在微电子可靠性领域的能力和专门知识。

Over the last four decades, silicon technology scaling has remarkably improved the integrated circuits (ICs) by increasing the transistor density and operating frequency while reducing the cost and energy consumption per transistor. However, the scaling of silicon technologies makes ICs more vulnerable to single event effects (SEEs) induced by energetic particles. In a well-designed IC, soft errors induced by SEEs appear to be the most troublesome both in terrestrial and high altitude or space environment. Storage cells are one of the major sources of soft errors in digital systems, and the soft error rates can be in 3 order differences for the designs from different vendors. Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process has emerging to be a promising technology for reducing soft error rates in electronic systems. The objectives of the proposed project are to develop fault-tolerant logic circuits that are fabricated with the most advanced CMOS technologies in order to reduce the soft error rate in Cisco's switches and other electronic products. We will study SEE in both advanced bulk and SOI CMOS technologies (28nm process) and aim to develop fault-tolerant digital storage and sensing circuits. Various techniques including both layout and design techniques will be used to develop the fault-tolerant storage cells. Device and schematic simulation tools will be used for the investigation, so that SEE mitigation methods can be effectively developed. The fabricated test chips will be tested with pulsed laser, heavy ion, proton and neutron beams to verify the effectiveness of the designs. The results from different testing facilities will also be correlated. One PDF, two Ph.D. students and one mater's student will be trained to advance the technology and to work closely with the industrial partners. The research results will result in patentable technologies and publications in related journals and conferences. The Canadian industry partner (Cisco Canada) can adopt the technologies developed from this project to improve the reliability of their products such as switches and linecards. The project will also enhance the capability and expertise of the research group in the area of microelectronics reliability at the University of Saskatchewan.