Light-hadron induced SER and scaling relations for 16- and 64-Mb DRAMS

We report on soft error rates (SER) of 16 and 64 Mb dynamic memory chips induced by three types of elementary particles, neutrons, protons, and pions, with emphasis on results obtained with pion beams. Significant SER differences, up to a factor 1000, are seen between various manufacturers and cell technologies. We discuss reaction mechanisms and by comparing SER rates to nuclear reaction cross sections present guidelines for predicting failure rates.