Single Event Error Generation by 14 MeV Neutrons Reactions in Silicon

A formalism is presented which permits the calculation of electronic upsets caused by the reaction products from 14 MeV neutrons on silicon. The derivation of the formalism is developed from work in the field of radiobiology/microdosimetry. The equations follow from the mathematics of geometrical probability and are neither intuitive nor model dependent. The parameters required are the dimensions of the sensitive volume and the threshold energy for electronic upset. The results are general in the sense that any reaction, within the limits stated, can be described. Application is made to the specific case of soft error production in dynamic RAM's.