Modeling of alpha-particle-induced soft error rate in DRAM

Alpha-particle-induced soft error in 256 M DRAM was numerically investigated. A unified model for alpha-particle-induced charge collection and a soft-error-rate simulator (SERS) was developed. We investigated the soft error rate of 256 M DRAM and identified the bit-bar mode as one of dominant modes for soft error. In addition, for the first time, it was found that trench-oxide depth has a significant influence on soft error rate, and it should be determined by the tradeoff between soft error rate and cell-to-cell isolation characteristics.