Radiation Effects and Soft Error Mitigation in Semiconductor Technologies

Semiconductor devices are increasingly prone to disruptions caused by energetic particles originating from cosmic rays, terrestrial radiation and nuclear environments. Such interactions deposit charge through ionisation and displacement processes, leading to phenomena collectively known as single-event effects. These range from transient voltage spikes in analogue circuits to bit flips in memory arrays and latch-up events in logic devices. Concurrently, the cumulative impact of low-level ionising radiation can shift device thresholds and degrade performance over time. The trend towards ever smaller device geometries and lower operating voltages exacerbates vulnerability, as reduced critical charge and thinner gate oxides heighten sensitivity. Mitigation strategies encompass device-level hardening—such as silicon-on-insulator substrates and specialised doping profiles—alongside architectural approaches including error-correcting codes, redundancy schemes and dynamic scrubbing. Emerging circuit techniques employ feedback transistors or cross-coupled structures to suppress transient disturbances, while system-level solutions integrate real-time error detection and recovery routines. Together these measures are critical for the reliable operation of spaceborne platforms, high-performance computing centres and safety-critical automotive or medical electronics, ensuring that both single-event upsets and cumulative dose effects remain within acceptable limits.

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Radiation Effects and Soft Error Mitigation in Semiconductor Technologies publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in radiation effects and soft error mitigation in semiconductor technologies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Single-event effect (SEE): Any anomaly in a device caused by a single charged particle strike.

Single-event upset (SEU): A non-destructive bit flip in memory or latch caused by an SEE.

Total ionising dose (TID): Cumulative ionising energy absorbed by a device, leading to threshold shifts and leakage.

Error-correcting code (ECC): Algorithmic method to detect and correct bit errors in digital data.

Scrubbing: Periodic refresh or correction of memory/configuration data to remove radiation-induced errors.

References

1. Scaling Trends of Digital Single-Event Effects: A Survey of SEU and SET Parameters and Comparison With Transistor Performance. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (2020).
2. Assessment of Proton Direct Ionization for the Radiation Hardness Assurance of Deep Submicron SRAMs Used in Space Applications. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (2021).
3. 0.1–10 MeV Neutron Soft Error Rate in Accelerator and Atmospheric Environments. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (2021).
4. Novel Quadruple Cross-Coupled Memory Cell Designs With Protection Against Single Event Upsets and Double-Node Upsets. IEEE Access (2019).
5. Redundant-Configuration Scrubbing of SRAM-Based FPGAs. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (2017).