A critical re-examination of body-bias on the soft error rate and single-event latch-up in automotive SRAMs

Body-biasing is commonly used to regulate power/performance for modern integrated circuits. However, it has an additional soft error rate (SER) and single event latch-up (SEL) impact. The physics of bipolar action, charge collection mechanisms and drive current variation are explored to quantify the impact of body bias using a 90-nm technology. Results indicate that in certain cases body-biased operation can help achieve the elusive goal of lower power as well as lower SER and SEL. Practical design limits are proposed on the extent of well bias to achieve lower power and higher reliability, especially for high temperature automotive environments.