[SI-LIST] SEU caused by laser illumination
- From: "Huiyun Li" <Huiyun.Li@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 14:38:41 +0100
Hi there,
I have a question about SEU (single-event-upset) in CMOS, hope it's relavent
to at least one of the SI-list topics.
I've been working on security/attacks on microprocessors, and is currently
working on the laser illumination attack, which causes ionization in silicon
and may change the state of the struck nodes, just as in a SEU caused by
heavy ions.
We got some experiment results (like reliably setting a register value to 0,
etc), which can be explained by the assumption that the radiation attack is
more
effective at turning on n-type transistors than their p-type counterparts.
However I can't find any references in SEU to prove this assumption, except
in some destructive effects (e.g. as for single event burnout (SEB), NMOS
are more sensitive to SEB than PMOS. bacause the impact ionization rate is
larger for electrons than for holes) .
I know bulk silicon has some different properties from epitaxial design in
aspect of SEU. Dopant concentrations may also affect the ionization rate.
Does it mean that there is no solid rule about turning on n-type and p-type
with laser illumination?
Huiyun Li
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge
JJ Thomson Avenue
Cambridge CB3 0FD, UK
------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from si-list:
si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field
or to administer your membership from a web page, go to:
//www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list
For help:
si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field
List FAQ wiki page is located at:
http://si-list.org/wiki/wiki.pl?Si-List_FAQ
List technical documents are available at:
http://www.si-list.org
List archives are viewable at:
//www.freelists.org/archives/si-list
or at our remote archives:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages
Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at:
http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu
Other related posts:
