Relevance and guidelines of radiation effect testing beyond the standards for electronic devices and systems used in space and at accelerators

Abstract

Radiation effect testing is a key element of the radiation hardness assurance process needed to ensure the compliance with respect to the reliability and availability requirements of both space and accelerator electronic equipment. Existing standard for radiation testing were mainly tailored for radiation-hardened devices, which have less performance than commercial and industrial counterparts and makes them both less attractive and less feasible when it comes to deal with low-budgets, tight schedules and distributed systems. In this work emerging challenges and opportunities in terms of radiation effects criticality and testing methodologies are explored to assess their relevance and to provide the required radiation-matter interaction background required to tailor future guidelines and standards for the verification of the radiation performance of commercial devices to be used in harsh radiation environments. The main topics under analysis are: the sensitivity of deep sub-micron technologies to upsets caused by direct ionization from protons and their relevance for space and accelerator applications; the challenges brought by the physical interaction mechanisms specific of charged pions when it comes to characterize the mixed-field accelerator environment and the suitability of using mixed-field facilities for testing beyond accelerator needs; the possibility to use deep penetrating high-energy hadron beams as a proxy to standard heavy ion testing which can be exploited for fast component screening and system-level testing that are both of interest when it comes to answer the new demanding needs in terms of budget and schedule of the new space industry and of the distributed systems required to reliably operate the Large Hadron Collider. Experimental data and numerical analysis aimed at modelling and understanding the physical processes behind the interactions of the various particles are used to explore the potential threats brought to standard approaches by low-energy protons and high-energy pions as well as to assess the suitability of high-energy hadrons in representing the space environment. Firstly, the work achieved in this thesis reinforces even more the fact that direct ionization from proton is expected to be a severe concern for the upset rate and that a more methodological characterization of devices against these effects would be needed. Secondly, it is shown that the specific interaction mechanisms of pions are not a big concern for the high-energy hadron equivalence approximation and that little is lost if pions are treated just like they were protons. Finally, the high-energy hadron testing is expected to provide some valuable insight when it comes to verify devices or systems against the threats posed by the space environment, though within certain boundaries.