SER Fundamentals

This tutorial on radiation-induced single event effects (SEE) covers the basic physics of SEE, testing for SEE, SER modeling, and SER scaling trends. In particular we review in detail the radiation mechanism responsible for SEE in terrestrial applications and introduce a complete SER modeling strategy that addresses modeling from charge collection to chip-level soft error rates. Finally, the SER of logic is discussed, which the presenter perceives as one of the biggest challenges for the immediate future.

Norbert Seifert

Norbert Seifert holds an M.S. in physics from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, and received his Ph.D. degree in physics from the Technical University of Vienna, Austria, in 1993. His Ph.D. thesis focuses on radiation-induced defect formation and diffusion in wide band gap ionic crystals. Dr. Seifert has conducted research in a wide range of physics topics, from charge transfer processes in atomic collisions as a postdoctoral associate at North Carolina State University, to computational fluid dynamics of high-power laser material processing as a postdoctoral associate at the Technical University of Vienna. In 1997 Dr. Seifert joined the Alpha Development Group (DEC/Compaq/HP) where he worked in the fields of device physics, device reliability, and digital design. He is currently a Staff Reliability and Design Engineer with Intel Corporation in Hillsboro, Oregon, where he is responsible for all aspects of developing accurate SER models and a coherent chip-level SER methodology. He is also deeply involved in developing methodologies for assessing the impact of NBTI on system performance. Dr. Seifert has worked extensively on soft errors – the physics of soft errors, virtually all modeling aspects, as well as SER trending. He has published more than 30 papers and holds several patents. Dr. Seifert is a senior member of IEEE and a member of the Austrian Physical Society. He served on numerous technical program committees and chaired several soft error sessions at major conferences such as IRPS and IEEE International On-line Test Symposium (IOLTS). He is a frequent reviewer for IEEE Transaction on Device and Materials Reliability (TDMR) and is a co-editor of the Special Issue on Soft Errors and Data Integrity in Terrestrial Computer Systems (TDMR, September 2005).