The recipients of the 2001 Outstanding Conference Paper Award are Paul Dodd, Marty Shaneyfelt, Kevin Horn, Dave Walsh, Gerald Hash, Tom Hill, Bruce Draper, Jim Schwank, Fred Sexton and Peter Winokur of Sandia National Laboratories for their paper entitled "SEU-Sensitive Volumes in Bulk and SOI SRAMs from First-Principles Calculations and Experiments”. In this paper, the authors used large-scale 3D simulations, broadbeam experiments and focused ion microscopy to study several aspects of SEU-sensitive volumes in bulk and SOI CMOS random-access memories. SEU maps and cross-sections calculated from 3D simulations were found to be in excellent agreement with measured broadbeam cross-section curves and microbeam charge collection and upset images for bulk CMOS SRAMs. Experimental studies of SEU in SOI SRAM's showed unexpectedly large charge collection following drain region ion strikes. The authors found that this drain region charge collection can lead to SEU-sensitive volumes in SOI integrated circuits that can include the reverse-biased drain regions. This finding is in contrast with the generally accepted assumption that only gate region ion strikes cause upset in SOI circuits. This mechanism may increase the sensitive area and hence the error rate by as much as a factor of ten. The authors postulated that the drain charge collection is due to charge transfer from the substrate to the active silicon area via ion-induced conductive pipe defects in the buried oxide.

The Meritorious Conference Paper Award for NSREC-2001 was given to Lloyd Massengill, Bo Kyoung Choi, Dan Fleetwood, Ron Schrimpf and Ken Galloway of Vanderbilt University, Marty Shaneyfelt, Tim Meisenheimer, Paul Dodd and Jim Schwank of Sandia National Laboratories and Yi-Mu Lee, Robert Johnson and Gerry Lucovsky of North Carolina State University for their paper entitled œHeavy-Ion-Induced Breakdown in Ultra-Thin Gate Oxides and High-k Dielectrics”.

Both the Outstanding and Meritorious papers were published in the December issue of the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

The Radiation Effects Data Workshop provides a forum for the presentation of radiation response and test facility data of interest to members of the community, while the Workshop Record serves as a ready reference for detailed radiation effects data. This year, one 2001 REDW poster presentation was selected as the Outstanding REDW Presentation. This award-winning presentation is entitled "Recent Radiation Damage and Single Event Effect Results for Candidate Spacecraft Electronics” and provides a highly usable compendium of test results for a wide variety of electronic devices. The presentation's authors are Martha O'Bryan, Christina Seidleck and Martin Carts of Raytheon ITSS, Ken LaBel, Robert Reed, Janet Barth, Cheryl Marshall, Donald Hawkins, Anthony Sanders and Steve Cox of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, James Howard, Jr., Hak Kim, James Forney, and Curtis Dunsmore of Jackson and Tull Chartered Engineers, Steve Buchner and Paul Marshall of SFA, Inc., and Christopher Palor, Ray Ladbury and Scott Kniffin of Orbital Sciences Corporation. The long list of authors that contributed to this presentation shows ample evidence of the close collaborations between the broad range of organizations they represent.

Nick Van Vonno serves as RESG Vice-Chairman Publications. Nick can be reached at Intersil Corporation, PO Box 883, MS 51-191, Melbourne, FL 32902; Phone: +1 321-724-7546; Fax: +1 321-729-1118, E-mail: nvanvonn@intersil.com. Article prepared by Teresa Farris whose contact information is at the end of the NSREC 2002 article.