Impact of Design and Process on Alpha-Induced SER in 4 nm Bulk-FinFET SRAM

This paper evaluates alpha-induced soft error rate $\boldsymbol{(\alpha \text{SER})}$ by alpha irradiation test in four different SRAMs and simulation. The test result shows the impact of three factors on $\boldsymbol{\alpha \text{SER}}$: process technology, the number of fins, and fin-pitch. The process technology advancing from 7 nm to 4 nm increases the $\boldsymbol{\alpha \text{SER}}$ by 33%, the #fin change (2-fin to 1-fin) decreases the $\boldsymbol{\alpha \text{SER}}$ by 54%, and the fin-pitch shrinking increases the $\boldsymbol{\alpha \text{SER}}$ by 17%. The simulation results show that the process variation does not contribute to the $\boldsymbol{\alpha \text{SER}}$. The BEOL thickness change can increase the $\boldsymbol{\alpha \text{SER}}$ by 1.24X. This paper also discusses the $\boldsymbol{\alpha \text{SER}}$ trend in SRAM from 130 nm to 4 nm technologies. Overall, the study aims to investigate the impact of process technology and design parameters on $\boldsymbol{\alpha \text{SER}}$ in SRAMs.