Atmospheric Neutron Soft Errors in 3-D NAND Flash Memories

The sensitivity of vertical-channel 3-D NAND flash memories to wide-energy spectrum neutrons was investigated. The effects of neutron exposure on a 3-D floating gate (FG) cells were studied in terms of threshold voltage shifts and raw bit error rates. The neutron failure rates obtained in the accelerated tests were extrapolated to field conditions at sea level and aircraft altitudes. The results are compared with previous data on 3-D NAND flash devices irradiated with heavy ions, as well as data on planar FG cell technologies.