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Design >> Mixed-Technology Design >> EEPROM exposure to XRAY
https://designers-guide.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1318529694

Message started by ic_engr on Oct 13^th, 2011, 11:14am

Title: EEPROM exposure to XRAY
Post by ic_engr on Oct 13^th, 2011, 11:14am

Hello Folks,

We have an interesting problem. We have a System In a Package (SIP) with a DSP whcih we designed and an EEPROM in packaged in one hybrid. The DSP when powers up, it load data from EEPROM. The part is failing at 40C in that the DSP is unable to get the data from EEPROM. We had both EEPROM and DSP pass our wafer test.

In trying to debug this issue, we exposed the SIP pacakge to XRAY and when we tried to power the part now it fails at 25C and above upto 60C. The part properly boots up at 20C and below. There seems to be a shift in the temperature for failure to read from EEPROM post XRAY exposure.

Does anyone have experience with EEPROMs in knowing whether exposure to XRAY would damage anything in EEPROMs e.g. timing etc.

Note the DSP provides supply to EEPROM whcih we measured (as there is a pin IO on the final package and is sufficiently high).

Any suggestions?

ic_engr.

Title: Re: EEPROM exposure to XRAY
Post by loose-electron on Oct 13^th, 2011, 1:48pm

depends on the EEPROM technology used, talk the the vendor of that chip.

Title: Re: EEPROM exposure to XRAY
Post by boe on Oct 14^th, 2011, 9:09am

Considerable doses of radiation can cause Vth of MOS transistors to shift, thus affecting the performance of any circuit.
As loose-electron already pointed out, you should ask the vendor of you memory for specifics (such as maximum dose) if you need to expose your circuit to radiation.

B O E

Title: Re: EEPROM exposure to XRAY
Post by awg on Nov 11^th, 2011, 10:44pm

I agree with the other posters, however, there is another thing that occurs when you subject EEPROMs to radiation - the charge on the floating gate can be degraded.

Radiation has a certain amount of energy associated with it (the amount depends on a few factors that escape me at the moment.) Well, this small amount - on the order of a few eV is enough to cause tunneling and thus affect the charge. It sounds like this could have also led to your part now working at a lower temperature only, in addition to Vt threshold changes, etc. The eV level required to upset the floating-gate charge is based on the tunnel oxide thickness; the thinner the oxide, the less energy required to affect the floating gate charge.

We generally don't our EEPROMs to be irradiated...

Joe W.