Effects of Energy-Deposition Variability on Soft Error Rate Prediction

Variability in energy deposition caused by intrinsic statistical fluctuations is quantified for specific radiation environments. Differences in effective flux are observed for minimally ionizing particles, typically leading to a decrease in predicted soft error rate, the magnitude of which depends on the threshold LET. When compared to spectra accounting for energy-deposition fluctuations, predictions with traditional LET spectra in CREME96 are found to lead to conservative estimates in almost all situations.