Evaluation of space radiation effects on FinFET oxide layer with Geant4 simulation

This study examines the radiation effects on FinFET devices in various space orbits utilizing Geant4 simulations. The impact of incident particles is assessed through the calculation of deposited energy in the oxide layer. By aggregating the radiation-induced energy deposition across all compositional elements, this research evaluates the effects of nine distinct orbital environments with varying incident energies and angles. The Geant4-derived energy deposition spectrum, combined with the orbital radiation model, facilitates a quantitative comparison of radiation effects on FinFET devices. The study ranks the orbits and their elements, identifying the most sensitive incident direction based on deposited energy. This quantitative evaluation method presents a novel approach for assessing space radiation effects on microelectronic devices with element-specific resolution. •Evaluation of radiation effects by energy deposited in the oxide layer. Radiation-induced malfunctions arise from charges trapped in the oxide layer. This study assesses radiation effects by analyzing particle energy deposition in the oxide layer.•Element energy deposition spectrum Geant4 simulations were used to obtain the energy deposition spectrum of elements in the oxide layer. Under an incident angle of α = 0° and β = 0°, two distinct branches of deposited energy were observed.•Orbital environment radiation Based on the obtained energy deposition spectrum of different compositional elements in orbital environments, and combined the space radiation models, we furtherly evaluated the radiation impact of different orbital environments.•Incident angle dependence The impact of incident angle for different elements was investigated using the same method, and the incident angle dependence of nine different orbital environments was evaluated in further detail.