Methods and apparatuses including one or more interrupted integrated circuit operations for characterizing radiation effects in integrated circuits

Abstract

Apparatuses and methods are provided using a plurality of interrupted IC operations to detect various conditions or changes of interest to integrated circuit (IC) elements (e.g., memory cells of NAND Flash memories or floating gate transistor) such as program/erase stress, total ionizing dose, and heavy ion exposure which modify normal IC element bit state changes. An exemplary method can include controlling a plurality of selected IC elements to execute a series of PROGRAM or ERASE operations on all of the plurality of selected elements that are each interrupted or halted before a normal or first time period required for the PROGRAM or ERASE operation has elapsed. An exemplary system records a number of interrupted operations required to cause a state change in each of the plurality of selected IC elements. Embodiments of the invention enable detection of stresses far below at least some thresholds for IC element or bit cell failure.