International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Research Applications and Utilization of Accelerators
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AP/DM-05
Test Simulation of Neutron Damage to Electronic Components and Circuits Using D.B. King, E. Bielejec, R. Fleming, and P.J. Griffin Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Corresponding Author: dbking@sandia.gov Historically, fast burst reactors have been used to test the transient response of electronic systems to displacement damage and ionization. With the shut down of several fast burst reactor facilities, there is an ongoing effort to use alternative facilities and radiation types, such as heavy ions, to simulate the displacement damage of neutrons, and electrons to simulate reactor ionization. The concept of damage between these two types of irradiation is a topic of much interest and controversy. This paper examines the relations between several measured damage metrics of electronic components and circuits after irradiation by reactor neutrons and by heavy ions generated in particle accelerators. Metrics considered include measured early- and late-time gain degradation in silicon bipolar junction transistors, the type and number of defects as measured in deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS), and voltage output responses of circuits. We will also compare the difference in ionization effects produced by neutron and ion irradiations, as well as electron irradiation. The paper also examines circuit test methodologies required when tests are fielded at diverse facilities, such as a reactor and an ion facility. Reactor facilities used to test electronics include the Sandia National Laboratories Sandia Pulsed Reactor–III (SNL SPR–III) and Sandia National Laboratories Annular Core Research Reactor (SNL ACRR). The ion facility used in this work is the SNL Ion Beam Laboratory (IBL). A 6 MV tandem Van de Graaff and numerous ion sources allow the IBL to provide a wide variety ions and energies. The electron facility addressed is the Little Mountain linear accelerator (LINAC), located at Hill AFB in Utah, operated in electron beam mode. The electron irradiation is used to bound the complex contributions of ionization effects on the device observed at the IBL. Little Mountain has a unique capability among LINACs in that it can provide long pulse widths. Pulse widths can be tailored from 50 μsec to 50 nsec settings with beam currents ranging from 0.1 to 2 Amps. In summary, we will demonstrate that alternate facilities, such as the IBL, have great utility in replacing the use of fast burst reactors to test discrete silicon transistors when the appropriate damage metrics are selected. We intend to expand the approach of using alternate facilities to circuit applications.
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