*Article* **Investigate the Equivalence of Neutrons and Protons in Single Event E**ff**ects Testing: A Geant4 Study**

**Yueh Chiang 1,2, Cher Ming Tan 3,4,5,6,\*, Tsi-Chian Chao 1,7, Chung-Chi Lee 1,7 and Chuan-Jong Tung <sup>7</sup>**


Received: 15 March 2020; Accepted: 2 May 2020; Published: 6 May 2020

**Abstract:** Neutron radiation on advanced integrated circuits (ICs) is becoming important for their reliable operation. However, a neutron test on ICs is expensive and time-consuming. In this work, we employ Monte Carlo simulation to examine if a proton test can replace or even accelerate the neutron test, and we found that 200 MeV protons are the closest to resembling neutron radiation with five main differences. This 200 MeV concur with the suggestion from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, Washington, DC, USA). However, the impacts of the five differences on single event effects (SEEs) require future work for examination.

**Keywords:** single event effects; linear energy transfer; Monte Carlo simulation; radiation hardness
