TCAD simulations on CMOS propagation induced pulse broadening effect: Dependence analysis on the threshold voltage

Propagation induced pulse broadening (PIPB) effect is becoming a major concern for electronic designers since new technologies are fast enough to propagate and capture Single Event Transients (SET). In this paper, we explore the influence of the MOSFET threshold voltage (VT) on PIPB effect by TCAD simulating the propagation of an SET after an ion strike, showing up this dependence by the modification of some CMOS technology parameters affecting VT. For this work, the test vehicle used to measure PIPB effect is a self-feedback chain of CMOS inverters. The conclusions outlined can be useful when designing with Multi-Vt nano-metric CMOS technologies. Our results suggest that the |VT|/VDD ratio could be a figure of merit for SET propagation broadening. © 2010 IEEE.