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This paper describes a technique for modeling single-event upsets due to ionizing radiation in a partially depleted silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFET device. Two current pulses are used, one connected between the drain and body of the device, and the other connected between the body and source of the device. The physical representation of these two current sources is described in detail. Circuit modeling is verified against drift-diffusion field solver modeling and hardware experiments. The effects of manufacturing variation and operating condition variation on the qCrit of circuit storage elements are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various nonplanar, multigate field-effect transistors (FET) structures have been reported that offer better gate con- trol than planar MOSFETs. In the nanometer regime, however, multigate (nanowire) structures also suffer strong quantum con- finement, which causes deleterious effects such as large threshold voltage variation. In this paper, we propose a general approach to compare planar versus nonplanar FETs with the consideration of both electrostatic integrity (gate control) and quantum confinement (the so-called "EQ approach"). With this EQ approach, we show that the cylindrical wire FET and the planar double-gate MOSFET have approximately equal scaling capability for a (001)-oriented wafer, while the nonplanar wire structures are significantly better for other wafer orientations [e.g., (011)] where the effective mass in the confinement direction of the planar MOSFET is relatively small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple potential mapping is used to show that tunneling through a single barrier, as in Schottky-barrier tunneling or source-to-drain tunneling in MOSFETs, cannot give rise to subthreshold swings below the thermionic limit (60 mV/decade at room temperature). While cognizant of the difficulty of proving a negative, it is thus highly unlikely that Schottky-barrier tunneling alone can result in reported instances of subthreshold swings that are less than 60 mV/decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]