Vanderbilt University

1. Vanderbilt Radiation Effects ResearchInstitute for Space and Defense ElectronicsRon SchrimpfDepartment of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

2. Vanderbilt University Located in Nashville, TN ~11,000 students Private Engineering, Arts & Sciences, Medicine, Law, Business, Education, Music…

3. Vanderbilt Radiation Effects Program World’s largest university-based radiation effects program • 25 graduate students • 5 undergraduate students • Open access • Basic research and support of ISDE engineering tasks • Training ground for rad-effects engineers Radiation Effects Research (RER) Group Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (ISDE) • 14 full time engineers • 2 support staff • ITAR compliant • Support specific radiation effects engineering needs in government and industry • 10 faculty with extensive expertise in radiation-effects • Beowulf supercomputing cluster • Custom software codes • EDA tools from multiple commercial vendors • Multi-million $ aggregate annual funding • Test and characterization capabilities and partnerships

4. What is ISDE ? Founded January 1, 2003 as a resource to support radiation effects analysis and rad-hard design needs Brings academic resources/expertise and real-world engineering to bear on system-driven needs ISDE provides: • Government and industry radiation-effects resource • Modeling and simulation • Design support: rad models, hardening by design • Technology support: assessment, characterization • Flexible staffing driven by project needs • 10 Faculty • 25 Graduate students • 14 Professional, non-tenured engineering staff

5. ISDE Capabilities • Characterize radiation and reliability responses of technologies • Develop and maintain device and circuit models and software tools • Apply simulation tools in support of design and characterization • Assist in IC and system design activities • Support development of test plans and standards • Interpret radiation and reliability test results • Assess capabilities and limitations of new technologies • Deep submicron (scaling, new materials, new structures) • Opto, nano, bio • Provide training, documentation and instructional materials • Serve as a radiation effects “SWAT” team

6. Sampling of Current Projects • U.S. Navy Trident II Life Extension (Draper prime) • DTRA Radiation Hardened Microelectronics • DARPA/DTRA Radiation Hardened by Design (Boeing prime) • NASA Electronic Parts & Packaging Program (NASA/GSFC) • NASA Extreme Environment Electronics (Ga Tech prime) • CREME Monte Carlo (NASA MSFC/RHESE) • Aging of Electronics (U.S. Navy DTO/Lockheed-Martin) • U.S. Air Force Minuteman Technology Readiness • BAE SEU-Hardened SRAMs (BAE prime) • SEE Charge Collection Signatures at 90nm (and below) (ANT/IBM prime) • Virtual Irradiation Simulator Development (Air Force/AEDC/PKP) • Integrated Multi-scale Modeling of Molecular Computing Devices (DOE) • Substrate Charge Collection Studies (MEMC) • CFDRC TCAD Tool Development (DTRA SBIR and NASA STTR) • Lynguent Compact Model Development (DTRA SBIR) • SEU Analysis (Medtronic) • GaN HEMT/amplifier simulation (Lockheed Martin) • Radiation Effects on Emerging Electronic Materials and Devices (AFOSR/MURI) • Design for Reliability Initiative for Future Technologies (AFOSR/MURI through UCSB) • DTRA Basis Research Efforts (three 6-1 grants)

7. Can we use high-performance computing to analyze radiation effects? • VAnderbilt Multi-Processor Integrated Research Engine (VAMPIRE) • Beowulf cluster consisting of >1500 processors • Heterogeneous processors (Pentiums, Opterons, PowerPCs)

8. Simulation Capabilities Process: FLOOPS (Synopsys) Device: Dessis (ISE/Synopsys) CFD-ACE+ (CFDRC) FLOODS (U of FL) IC Layout & Verification Cadence Synopsys Energy Deposition MRED (Geant4) MCNPX Circuit: SPECTRE (Cadence) HSPICE (Synopsys) ELDO (Mentor) Compact Model Parameter Extraction: Cadence Pro+ (Cadence) Aurora (Synopsys) ISE Extract (ISE) Defect Models VASP (DFT code)

9. B E C G D S Process Design Kit Development and Enhancement RH - PDK Custom Test Chip Design Technology Characterization: TCAD Simulations Radiation Enabled Behavioral/Degraded Models Radiation Test Data Model Development and Calibration Design, Simulation, and Topology Hardening Final Radiation Hardened Design Layout Hardening Techniques

10. Physically Based Simulation of Radiation Events 63-MeV proton incident on a SiGe HBT Iso-charge surfaces following a nuclear reaction

11. Motion of an ion thru Si<110> -0.08 0.08 0

12. Radiation Effects on Emerging Electronic Materials and Devices: Motivation • More changes in IC technology and materials in past five years than previous forty years • SiGe, SOI, strained Si, alternative dielectrics, new metallization systems, ultra-small devices… • Future space and defense systems require identification and understanding of radiation effects to develop hardening approaches for advanced technologies • Changes in device geometry and materials affect energy deposition, charge collection, circuit upset, parametric degradation… IC Design Device Structure New Materials Si1-xGex Si1-xGex Energy Deposition Defect Models Device Response Circuit Response

13. Technical Approach • Experimental analysis of radiation effects in emerging technologies through partnerships with semiconductor manufacturers • Identification of critical radiation effects mechanisms and challenges through first-principles modeling • Simulation of new radiation-effects mechanisms using custom Monte-Carlo energy deposition codes, device simulation tools, and high performance computing

14. Radiation Effects in Emerging Electronic Materials and Devices:Results Radiation Response of New Materials Impact of New Device Structures Incorporation of new materials dramatically impacts radiation response HfO2-based dielectrics and emerging high-k materials tested; HfSiON is very promising Substrate engineering (strained Si, Si orientations, Si/SiGe, SOI) offers possibility for single-event hardening New device technologies strongly impact single-event response and TID leakage current SiGe HBTs, strained Si CMOS, ultra-small bulk CMOS exhibit complicated charge collection mechanisms Floating-body SOI found to exhibit high radiation-induced off-state leakage due to tunneling Localized Radiation Damage Single Events in New Technologies • RADSAFE—First multi-scale Monte Carlo single-event/rate-prediction tool • Passivation/metallization found to dominate SEE response in some hardened technologies • Excellent agreement with on-orbit data; conventional rate-prediction methods underestimate rate by orders of magnitude • First-principles evidence of micro-melting in small devices • Displacement damage found to depend on substrate doping type • Monte-Carlo simulation tool for non-ionizing energy loss developed

15. Advanced Radiation Effects AnalysisAutomated Connection Between Models Accelerator-Based Experiments Radiation Environment Models Radiation Transport Models Device Single Event Effects Circuit Single Event Effects Predict error rate System Single Event Effects

16. Summary • Vanderbilt has the largest university-based program focused on radiation effects in electronics. • Comprehensive approach from basic particle interactions to large-scale circuit and system performance. • Collaboration with multiple organizations.