alpha particles and soft error

 what is an alpha particle and where does

it come from an alpha particle is made

up of two neutrons and two protons the

same as the helium nucleus and they have

a charge state of plus two technically

speaking alpha particles are randomly

generated positively charged energetic

nuclear particles originating from the

radioactive decay of heavily nucleons

and from certain nuclear reactions

generally speaking here on earth alpha

particles come from two main sources

from the radionuclides continually

produced by the constant bombardment of

earth by extraterrestrial cosmic rays

and from naturally occurring radioactive

elements found in abundance here on

earth these include thorium and uranium

and their daughters radon in polonium an

alpha particle regardless of its origin

can cause what is known as a single

event upset or soft error in many of

today's semiconductor designs a

high-energy alpha particle can penetrate

silicon devices to a depth of nearly 25

microns as the alpha particle pass

through the silicon it creates a track

along which electrons are dislodged from

the crystal lattice sites if the

abundance of electrons are collected by

an empty storage while in the cell it

can cause the cell to flip its binary

state from a 1 to a 0 generating the

soft error thorium and uranium are found

naturally in many of the components used

to manufacture semiconductor devices

such as packaging materials molding

compounds and lead-based sauders as such

many of these materials contain certain

levels of alpha emission even lead free

solder Tsar testing high in alpha

content and the higher the Alpha content

of the material the greater the chance

of induced soft errors and with today's

increasing level of transistor density

integration comes an exponentially

increased sensitivity to soft error the

semiconductor industry along with the

medical agricultural and aerospace

industries now require what is

considered very low to ultra low alpha

emission materials

our team has the ability to measure and

report the alpha emission of materials

based on over 25 years of providing

alpha detection equipment and services

by constantly updating and improving the

design and materials of the equipment we

can measure nearly any type of sample

from complete IC devices down to the

individual materials in the form of

sheets pellets silicon wafers pastes and

powders if it can be placed in the

counting chamber it can be measured and

no sample preparation is required other

than placing the sample onto the sample

tray and into the counting chamber