Soft errors cosmic rays

Radiation failures are principally caused by uranium and thorium contaminants and secondary cosmic rays. Radiation can cause wearout, aging, embrittlement of materials, or overstress soft errors in such electronic hardware as logic chips. Chemical failures occur in adverse chemical environments that result in corrosion, oxidation, or ionic surface dendritic growth. There may also be interactions between different types of stresses. For example, metal migration maybe accelerated in the presence of chemical contaminants and composition gradients and a thermal load can accelerate the failure mechanism due to a thermal expansion mismatch. 

Satoh, S., Tosaka, Y., Wender, S.A. Geometric Effect of Multiple-Bit Soft Errors Induced by Cosmic Ray Neutrons on DRAM s. Electron Device Letters 21(6), 310-312 (2000)... 

There are multiple sources for the radiation that causes soft errors. They fit within the broad categories of cosmic rays, (boron) neutron capture, alpha (a) particles from materials in microelectronic packages, and electrical noise or electromagnetic interference (EMI) [67]. The... 

Tang, H.H.K. Nuclear physics of cosmic ray interaction with semiconductor materials particle induced soft errors from a physicist s perspective. IBM J. Res. Develop. January 1996,40 (1), 91-108. 

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