Research

12 pages, 3363 KiB

Open AccessArticle

System-Level Total Ionizing Dose Testing of Satellite Subsystems: EagleEye Microsatellite Case Study

by Tomasz Rajkowski, Przemysław Pustułka, Marcin Bieda, Sylwia Ślasa, Michał Kazaniecki, Kamil Myszka, Mateusz Szczygielski, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Konrad Traczyk, Kamil Tarenko, Adam Hołownia, Michał Ładno, Piotr Bińczyk, Szymon Wasilewski, Marcin Mazur, Tomasz Zawistowski, Sławosz Uznański, Tymoteusz Kosiński, Mariusz Chabera, Krzysztof Mazurek, Jan Klimaszewski, Adam Wasilewski, Michał Matusiak and Sławomir Wronka Show full author list Hide full author list

Electronics 2024, 13(1), 122; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13010122 - 28 Dec 2023

Viewed by 756

Abstract

A system-level total ionizing dose test method of satellite subsystems is discussed in the context of the radiation qualification of a satellite. System-level tests are performed with high-energy X-rays, and the irradiation results of the key subsystems, including the on-board computer, attitude- and [...] Read more.

A system-level total ionizing dose test method of satellite subsystems is discussed in the context of the radiation qualification of a satellite. System-level tests are performed with high-energy X-rays, and the irradiation results of the key subsystems, including the on-board computer, attitude- and orbit-control-system computer, and battery management system, are presented and analyzed in terms of the repeatability of the results, the observability issues, and the importance of the test conditions. Furthermore, the main benefits of the system-level total ionizing dose tests of the given subsystems are discussed, as well as the risks related to performing tests at the system level. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Tolerant Electronics, Volume III)

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19 pages, 7381 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Basic Mechanisms of Single-Event Occurrence in Silicon Carbide Semiconductor under Terrestrial Atmospheric Neutron Irradiation

by Daniela Munteanu and Jean-Luc Autran

Electronics 2023, 12(21), 4468; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12214468 - 30 Oct 2023

Viewed by 727

Abstract

This numerical simulation work investigates the basic physical mechanisms of single events induced in a target layer composed of silicon carbide exposed to natural radiation with atmospheric neutrons at the terrestrial level. Using direct calculations and extensive Geant4 simulations, this study provides an [...] Read more.

This numerical simulation work investigates the basic physical mechanisms of single events induced in a target layer composed of silicon carbide exposed to natural radiation with atmospheric neutrons at the terrestrial level. Using direct calculations and extensive Geant4 simulations, this study provides an accurate investigation in terms of nuclear processes, recoil products, secondary ion production and fragment energy distributions. In addition, the thorough analysis includes a comparison between the responses to neutron irradiation of silicon carbide, carbon (diamond) and silicon targets. Finally, the consequences of these interactions in terms of the generation of electron–hole pairs, which is a fundamental mechanism underlying single-event transient effects at the device or circuit level, are discussed in detail. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Tolerant Electronics, Volume III)

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13 pages, 368 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Toward the Use of Electronic Commercial Off-the-Shelf Devices in Space: Assessment of the True Radiation Environment in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

by Oscar Gutiérrez, Manuel Prieto, Alvaro Perales-Eceiza, Ali Ravanbakhsh, Mario Basile and David Guzmán

Electronics 2023, 12(19), 4058; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12194058 - 27 Sep 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2460

Abstract

Low Earth orbit missions have become crucial for a variety of applications, from scientific research to commercial purposes. Exposure to ionizing radiation in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) poses a significant risk to both spacecraft and astronauts. In this article, we analyze radiation data [...] Read more.

Low Earth orbit missions have become crucial for a variety of applications, from scientific research to commercial purposes. Exposure to ionizing radiation in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) poses a significant risk to both spacecraft and astronauts. In this article, we analyze radiation data obtained from different LEO missions to evaluate the potential of using electronic commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices in space missions. This study is focused on the total ionizing dose (TID). Our results demonstrate that COTS technology can effectively provide cost-effective and reliable solutions for space applications. Furthermore, we compare the data obtained from actual missions with computational models and tools, such as SPENVIS, to evaluate the accuracy of these models and enhance radiation exposure prediction. This comparison provides valuable insights into the true radiation environment in space and helps us to better understand the potential of COTS technology in reducing costs and development times by utilizing technology previously used in other areas. In light of the results, we can see that the radiation values observed experimentally in space missions versus the computer simulations used present variations up to a factor of 30 depending on the model used in the analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Tolerant Electronics, Volume III)

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15 pages, 5883 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Drift Resilient Frequency-Based Sensor Interface Architectures with Adaptive Clock Frequency

by Mikias Belhu Zenebe, Getachew Alemu, Valentijn De Smedt and Paul Leroux

Electronics 2023, 12(13), 2775; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12132775 - 22 Jun 2023

Viewed by 785

Abstract

Maintaining the accuracy of a sensor system across various operating conditions has always been a challenge, especially for those operating in harsh surroundings such as a radiation environment. Concerning frequency-based sensor interfaces, supply voltage drifts and gain shift of the voltage-to-frequency converter (VFC) [...] Read more.

Maintaining the accuracy of a sensor system across various operating conditions has always been a challenge, especially for those operating in harsh surroundings such as a radiation environment. Concerning frequency-based sensor interfaces, supply voltage drifts and gain shift of the voltage-to-frequency converter (VFC) are critical design issues. These manifest as gain, offset, and linearity errors at the system level and therefore require continuous correction mechanisms. In this paper, dynamic gain and offset error-compensated open-loop frequency-based sensor interface architectures with adaptive clock frequency are proposed, which result in a ratiometric digital output. To address the mismatch issue, two architectures, one with periodic swapping of the VFCs’ inputs and outputs, and the other with the use of a single analog-to-digital converter (ADC) as an analog front end, are developed. The concepts were demonstrated with implementations on a Zynq board (ZYBO). The results of the first architecture showed that for a 25% gain mismatch between the VFCs, the output gain error was reduced from around 7.4% to 0.79% and the offset error was reduced from around 11.8% to 0.01%. Additionally, for the second architecture, a maximum of 0.11% gain error and 0.1% offset error were recorded for an emulated

\pm

25% supply drift. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Tolerant Electronics, Volume III)

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17 pages, 6006 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhancing Fault Awareness and Reliability of a Fault-Tolerant RISC-V System-on-Chip

by Douglas A. Santos, André M. P. Mattos, Douglas R. Melo and Luigi Dilillo

Electronics 2023, 12(12), 2557; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12122557 - 06 Jun 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1712

Abstract

Recent research has shown interest in adopting the RISC-V processors for high-reliability electronics, such as aerospace applications. The openness of this architecture enables the implementation and customization of the processor features to increase their reliability. Studies on hardened RISC-V processors facing harsh radiation [...] Read more.

Recent research has shown interest in adopting the RISC-V processors for high-reliability electronics, such as aerospace applications. The openness of this architecture enables the implementation and customization of the processor features to increase their reliability. Studies on hardened RISC-V processors facing harsh radiation environments apply fault tolerance techniques in the processor core and peripherals, exploiting system redundancies. In prior work, we present a hardened RISC-V System-on-Chip (SoC), which could detect and correct radiation-induced faults with limited fault awareness. Therefore, in this work, we propose solutions to extend the fault observability of the SoC implementation by providing error detection and monitoring. For this purpose, we introduce observation features in the redundant structures of the system, enabling the report of valuable information that supports enhanced radiation testing and support the application to perform actions to recover from critical failures. Thus, the main contribution of this work is a solution to improve fault awareness and the analysis of the fault models in the system. In order to validate this solution, we performed complementary experiments in two irradiation facilities, comprehending atmospheric neutrons and a mixed-field environment, in which the system proved to be valuable for analyzing the radiation effects on the processor core and its peripherals. In these experiments, we were able to obtain a range of error reports that allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the faults mechanisms, as well as improve the characterization of the SoC. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Tolerant Electronics, Volume III)

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14 pages, 4096 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Frequency-Based Sensor Interface with Dynamic Offset Compensation

by Mikias Belhu Zenebe, Getachew Alemu, Valentijn De Smedt and Paul Leroux

Electronics 2023, 12(7), 1524; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12071524 - 23 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 991

Abstract

Sensor interfaces need to be robust and accurate for many applications. This is more challenging for sensor systems operating in radiation environments because the mismatch between components grows as a result of the absorbed total ionizing dose (TID). In frequency-based sensor interfaces, the [...] Read more.

Sensor interfaces need to be robust and accurate for many applications. This is more challenging for sensor systems operating in radiation environments because the mismatch between components grows as a result of the absorbed total ionizing dose (TID). In frequency-based sensor interfaces, the frequency drift of the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) can create dynamic output offset, gain, and linearity errors unless a calibration algorithm is included. In this paper, a digital intensive dynamic offset cancelation technique is proposed for an open loop VCO-based sensor to digital converter, which is achieved by making periodic adjustments to the average center biasing voltage of one of the VCOs in a differential architecture, in effect to make their center frequencies match. A simulation of the behavioral model of the proposed architecture was developed and hardware implementation of the whole system was performed on an FPGA by emulating, with digital modules, the characteristics of the two VCO outputs modulated with differential inputs. The results showed that the output offset error was reduced from around 5% to 0.1% for a relative oscillators’ drift close to 10% of the tuning range, and the SNDR is relatively maintained when subjected to variable relative VCO drifts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Tolerant Electronics, Volume III)

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13 pages, 4415 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Bulk Doping and Halos on the TID Response of I/O and Core 150 nm nMOSFETs

by Stefano Bonaldo, Serena Mattiazzo, Marta Bagatin, Alessandro Paccagnella, Giovanni Margutti and Simone Gerardin

Electronics 2023, 12(3), 543; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12030543 - 20 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2378

Abstract

The total ionizing dose sensitivity of planar 150 nm CMOS technology is evaluated by measuring the DC responses of nMOSFETs at several irradiation steps up to 125 krad(SiO₂). Different TID sensitivities are measured for transistors built with different channel dimensions and [...] Read more.

The total ionizing dose sensitivity of planar 150 nm CMOS technology is evaluated by measuring the DC responses of nMOSFETs at several irradiation steps up to 125 krad(SiO₂). Different TID sensitivities are measured for transistors built with different channel dimensions and operating voltages (I/O and core). The experimental results evidence strong relations between TID sensitivity and the doping profiles in the channel. I/O transistors have the highest TID sensitivity due to their thicker gate oxide and lower bulk doping compared with core devices. In general, narrow-channel devices have the worst degradation with negative threshold voltage shifts, transconductance variations and increased subthreshold leakage currents, suggesting charge trapping in shallow trench isolation (STI). The enhanced TID tolerance of short-channel core devices is most likely related to the increased channel doping induced by the overlapping of halo implantations. Finally, transistors fabricated for low-leakage applications exhibit near insensitivity to TID due to higher bulk doping used during the fabrication to minimize the drain-to-source leakage current. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Tolerant Electronics, Volume III)

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12 pages, 1702 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Analytical Approach to Calculate Soft Error Rate Induced by Atmospheric Neutrons

by Frédéric Wrobel, Ygor Aguiar, Cleiton Marques, Giuseppe Lerner, Rubén García Alía, Frédéric Saigné and Jérôme Boch

Electronics 2023, 12(1), 104; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12010104 - 27 Dec 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1516

Abstract

In the atmosphere, it is generally understood that neutrons are the main contributor to the soft error rate (SER) in electronic devices. These particles are indeed able to trigger nuclear reactions in the sensitive regions of the devices, leading to secondary ions that [...] Read more.

In the atmosphere, it is generally understood that neutrons are the main contributor to the soft error rate (SER) in electronic devices. These particles are indeed able to trigger nuclear reactions in the sensitive regions of the devices, leading to secondary ions that may ionize the matter sufficiently to upset a memory cell or induce a transient signal, known as soft errors. For reliability purposes, it is crucial to be able to estimate the SER associated with a given technology, which is typically characterized by its sensitive volume and its threshold linear energy transfer (LET). As an alternative to the usual Monte Carlo methods, in this work we present an analytical model for SER prediction, where we separate the radiation–matter interaction from the geometry considerations (sensitive volume). By doing so, we show that the SER can be expressed as the sum of two contributions that can be calculated for any threshold LET and any sensitive volume size. We compare our proposed approach to existing Monte Carlo simulations in the literature, obtaining a very good agreement despite our approximations, thus validating our approach. As an additional result, we can show that, for future down-sized technologies that may be more sensitive to radiation effects, the contribution of neutrons in the 1–10 MeV energy range to the SER is expected to decrease. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Tolerant Electronics, Volume III)

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18 pages, 5029 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Gamma Ray Effects on Multi-Colored Commercial Light-Emitting Diodes at MGy Level

by Luca Weninger, Raphaël Clerc, Matteo Ferrari, Adriana Morana, Timothé Allanche, Roberto Pecorella, Aziz Boukenter, Youcef Ouerdane, Emmanuel Marin, Olivier Duhamel, Marc Gaillardin, Philippe Paillet and Sylvain Girard

Electronics 2023, 12(1), 81; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12010081 - 25 Dec 2022

Viewed by 1799

Abstract

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are of interest for implementation in radiation environments, such as part of illumination systems of radiation-tolerant cameras able to provide images at high doses (>MGy). It is then mandatory to characterize the radiation effects on all of the LED key [...] Read more.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are of interest for implementation in radiation environments, such as part of illumination systems of radiation-tolerant cameras able to provide images at high doses (>MGy). It is then mandatory to characterize the radiation effects on all of the LED key properties exploited for such applications. To this aim, the evolution of the optical properties of commercial LEDs after they have been exposed to γ-rays, up to total ionizing dose (TID) levels of 2 MGy(air) at room temperature, is discussed. The devices under test include four LEDs of different colors (red, green, blue and white) in the same package. This allows a direct comparison between the responses of the different structures and technologies, as the proximity between the diodes ensures the uniformity of their irradiation conditions. The radiation effect on the electron–photon conversion mechanisms inside these LEDs is investigated through the evolution of their external quantum efficiency (EQE) vs. current characteristics. The spectral emission pattern of LEDs after irradiation at different dose levels is then characterized to estimate the TID effects on the lens which surrounds the LED package. The presented results show a monotone radiation-induced EQE decrease as a function of the TID, especially in the red LEDs. For the tested red LEDs, the EQE decreased up to 78% after a TID of 1 MGy when they were OFF during irradiation, and up to 8% when they were ON during irradiation. A visual inspection of the devices after irradiation shows a mechanical degradation of the lens shared among the four diodes. However, the emission pattern analysis does not show any significant radiation-induced changes in the optical properties of the lens. Based on these results, it appears possible to design LED-based illumination systems able to survive to MGy dose levels that can be integrated as subsystems of radiation-hardened cameras. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Radiation Tolerant Electronics, Volume III)

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