Neutron Effects in the Peripheral Circuitry of 3D NAND Flash Memories

This proposal aims at further studying the effects of atmospheric neutrons on 3D NAND Flash memories with vertical architecture, by investigating the impact of the peripheral circuitry. Indeed, in complex devices such as Flash memories, which include heterogeneous building blocks and carry out complex algorithms even for the most basic functions, the chances of neutron-induced malfunctions related to the peripheral circuitry may be significant. For this reason, we propose a new set of experiments in which the devices will be powered and operated with different duty cycles, program modes, and test patterns under neutron exposure.