Alpha-Soft Error Rate due to new generations of high-κ gate oxides and metal gate electrodes in a 32 nm node

Soft errors have become increasingly problematic in newer CMOS technologies. The integration of new elements from the periodic table, due to transistor miniaturization, introduces different properties (physical, chemical, mechanical, etc...) but natural radioactivity has so far not been considered. The new materials could increase the soft error rate, if the materials are natural radiation emitters. In this paper, the risk of integrating new materials, such as samarium and platinum, is studied by eva-luating the soft error rate of a 32 nm technology based on Monte Carlo simulations.