Radiation Effects of Advanced Electronic Devices and Circuits, 3rd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Research on the effects of radiation on advanced electronic devices and integrated circuits has increased rapidly in recent years, resulting in many interesting approaches to the modeling of radiation effects and the design of advanced radiation-hardened electronic devices and integrated circuits. In parallel, the study of device reliability has become increasingly critical, as harsh radiation environments significantly accelerate aging and failure mechanisms. This research is strongly driven by the growing need for radiation-hardened higher-performance electronics for space applications like planetary exploration, high-energy physics experiments such as those on the large hadron collider at CERN, and many nuclear applications (e.g., nuclear energy and safety management). With the progressive scaling of integrated circuit technologies and the growing complexity of electronic devices, their susceptibility to ionizing radiation and reliability degradation has raised many exciting challenges, which are expected to drive research in the coming decade. Although the total ionizing dose (TID) effects on bulk CMOS are well known, little is known about the radiation performance of SOI, FinFET, GAA (gate-all-around), and 3D stacking technologies, or novel devices based on carbon nanotubes, graphene, and other advanced materials. Regarding single-event effects (SEEs), continued scaling has drastically enhanced the charge-sharing effect, which leads to multiple-cell upsets and multi-pulse propagations and requires new solutions to reduce radiation sensitivity in advanced digital/analog/RF/power/mixed-signal devices and integrated circuits. The radiation hardness assurance of complex systems with multiple components in mixed technologies also necessitates new testing paradigms and verification methodologies to limit the time and cost of evaluation.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to seek high-quality submissions that highlight emerging applications and address recent breakthroughs in device reliability and the modeling of radiation effects in advanced electronic devices and integrated circuits; radiation-hardening techniques for advanced digital, analog, RF, and mixed-signal integrated circuits; and testing methodologies for radiation effect characterization and hardness evaluation. The topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Basic mechanisms of radiation effects in advanced electronic devices, integrated circuits, and novel devices.
• Reliability physics, degradation mechanisms, and failure analysis in advanced devices, including negative-bias temperature instability (NBTI), hot carrier injection (HCI), time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB), etc.
• Compact modeling of radiation effects in advanced electronic devices, integrated circuits, and novel devices.
• Radiation hardening and fault tolerance for advanced electronic devices, integrated circuits, and novel devices.
• The influence of the radiation environment, including space, atmospheric, terrestrial, and artificial influences.
• Radiation effect characterization and radiation hardness assurance testing.
• New developments of interest to the radiation effect community.

Prof. Dr. Chang Cai
Dr. Yaqing Chi
Dr. Li Cai
Guest Editors

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