Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “total ionizing dose”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 289 records · Page 16

Single-event Effect Report for EPC Series eGaN FETs: Proton Testing for SEE and TNID Effects

Previous testing of the Enhanced Power Conversion (EPC) eGaN FETs showed sensitivity to destructive single-event effects (SEE) effects to heavy ions. The presence of tungsten plugs in the gate area raises concerns that the device may be vulnerable to SEE from protons. Irradiation of biased and unbiased devices with heavy ion has results in some damage suspected of being due to total non-ionizing dose (TNID). Proton irradiation is a better radiation type to study this effect. This study presents the results of testing device with protons for SEE and TNID. No SEE in the EPC2012 device, the most sensitive device to SEE, were seen with 53 MeV protons at several angles. The devices continued to function after 1.5 Mrad (Si) of proton dose with only a slight shift in parameters. These results suggest that gross TNID will not be a factor in using these devices nor suffer from SEE due to protons. However, the device should be tested at with 500 MeV protons to guarantee to immunity proton SEE.

Scheick, Leif↗

The Radiation Environment for the LISA/Laser Interferometry Space Antenna

The purpose of this document is to define the radiation environment for the evaluation of degradation due to total ionizing and non-ionizing dose and of single event effects (SEES) for the Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (LISA) instruments and spacecraft. The analysis took into account the radiation exposure for the nominal five-year mission at 20 degrees behind Earth's orbit of the sun, at 1 AU (astronomical unit) and assumes a launch date in 2014. The transfer trajectory out to final orbit has not yet been defined, therefore, this evaluation does not include the impact of passing through the Van Allen belts. Generally, transfer trajectories do not contribute significantly to degradation effects; however, single event effects and deep dielectric charging effects must be taken into consideration especially if critical maneuvers are planned during the van Allen belt passes.

Barth, Janet L.↗

Charge Yield at Low Electric Fields: Considerations for Bipolar Integrated Circuits

A significant reduction in total dose damage is observed when bipolar integrated circuits are irradiated at low temperature. This can be partially explained by the Onsager theory of recombination, which predicts a strong temperature dependence for charge yield under low-field conditions. Reduced damage occurs for biased as well as unbiased devices because the weak fringing field in thick bipolar oxides only affects charge yield near the Si/SiO2 interface, a relatively small fraction of the total oxide thickness. Lowering the temperature of bipolar ICs - either continuously, or for time periods when they are exposed to high radiation levels - provides an additional degree of freedom to improve total dose performance of bipolar circuits, particularly in space applications.

ionizing radiation↗

Dried Plum Diet Prevents Bone Loss Caused by Ionizating Radiation: Reduces Pro-Resorption Cytokine Expression, and Protects Marrow-Derived Osteoprogenitors

Future long duration missions outside the protection of the Earth's magnetosphere, or unshielded exposures to solar particle events, achieves total doses capable of causing cancellous bone loss. Cancellous bone loss caused by ionizing radiation occurs quite rapidly in rodents: Initially, radiation increases the number and activity of bone-resorbing osteoclasts, followed by decrease in bone forming osteoblast cells. Here we report that Dried Plum (DP) diet completely prevented cancellous bone loss caused by ionizing radiation (Figure 1). DP attenuated marrow expression of genes related to bone resorption (Figure 2), and protected the bone marrow-derived pre-osteoblasts ex vivo from total body irradiation (Figure 3). DP is known to inhibit resorption in models of aging and ovariectomy-induced osteopenia; this is the first report that dietary DP is radioprotective.

Radioprotective↗

Engineering design constraints of the lunar surface environment

Living and working on the lunar surface will be difficult. Design of habitats, machines, tools, and operational scenarios in order to allow maximum flexibility in human activity will require paying attention to certain constraints imposed by conditions at the surface and the characteristics of lunar material. Primary design drivers for habitat, crew health and safety, and crew equipment are: ionizing radiation, the meteoroid flux, and the thermal environment. Secondary constraints for engineering derive from: the physical and chemical properties of lunar surface materials, rock distributions and regolith thicknesses, topography, electromagnetic properties, and seismicity. Protection from ionizing radiation is essential for crew health and safety. The total dose acquired by a crew member will be the sum of the dose acquired during EVA time (when shielding will be least) plus the dose acquired during time spent in the habitat (when shielding will be maximum). Minimizing the dose acquired in the habitat extends the time allowable for EVA's before a dose limit is reached. Habitat shielding is enabling, and higher precision in predicting secondary fluxes produced in shielding material would be desirable. Means for minimizing dose during a solar flare event while on extended EVA will be essential. Early warning of the onset of flare activity (at least a half-hour is feasible) will dictate the time available to take mitigating steps. Warning capability affects design of rovers (or rover tools) and site layout. Uncertainty in solar flare timing is a design constraint that points to the need for quickly accessible or constructible safe havens.

Morrison, D. A.↗

Impact of the May 2024 Gannon Storm on Low Earth Orbit Dosimetric Quantities: Comparisons of the NAIRAS Model -Real Time and Re-analysis- with ISS Data

The solar storm of May 2024, the Gannon storm, led to a display of aurora over the globe. One of the less known effects of that storm is on the radiation doses in low-Earth orbit: it first led to a Forbush decrease in dose rates and then to a Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) event that increased the total dose suffered near the international space station. The Nowcast of Aerospace Ionizing RAdiation System (NAIRAS) model predicts dosimetric and radiative flux quantities for assessing human radiation exposure levels and radiation effects on flight electronic systems from the surface of the Earth to deep space. It runs in near-real-time at the CCMC, but also has a run-on-request that allows for a more precise computation thanks to carefully processed data. NAIRAS was able to compute the effects of the Gannon storm at the ISS in real-time and provide ideas of the doses encountered by the astronauts and the experiments in and outside of the station. In this work, we show the simulations of the doses encountered during the storm and compare them with several measurements at the ISS. This work shows the capabilities of NAIRAS to address the problem of the SEP events at low Earth orbit and its real-time capabilities.

Guillaume Gronoff↗

Confidence Level Based Approach to Total Dose Specification for Spacecraft Electronics

A confidence level based approach to total dose radiation hardness assurance is presented for spacecraft electronics. It is applicable to both ionizing and displacement damage dose. Results are compared to the traditional approach that uses radiation design margin and advantages of the new approach are discussed.

Total Dose Distributions in Space↗

Radiation response issues for infrared detectors

Researchers describe the most important radiation response issues for infrared detectors. In general, the two key degradation mechanisms in infrared detectors are the noise produced by exposure to a flux of ionizing particles (e.g.; trapped electronics and protons, debris gammas and electrons, radioactive decay of neutron-activated materials) and permanent damage produced by exposure to total dose. Total-dose-induced damage is most often the result of charge trapping in insulators or at interfaces. Exposure to short pulses of ionization (e.g.; prompt x rays or gammas, delayed gammas) will cause detector upset. However, this upset is not important to a sensor unless the recovery time is too long. A few detector technologies are vulnerable to neutron-induced displacement damage, but fortunately most are not. Researchers compare the responses of the new technologies with those of the mainstream technologies of PV HgCdTe and IBC Si:As. One important reason for this comparison is to note where some of the newer technologies have the potential to provide significantly improved radiation hardness compared with that of the mainstream technologies, and thus to provide greater motivation for the pursuit of these technologies.

Kalma, Arne H.↗

Nuclear emulsion measurements of the dose contribution from tissue disintegration stars on the Apollo-Soyuz mission

A total of 996 disintegration stars were prong-counted in two 100 micron llford K.2 emulsions from the dosimeter of the Docking Pilot on Apollo-Soyuz. The change of slope of the distribution at a prong number of about 6 or 7 indicates 219 stars as originating in gelatin. Applying the QF values set forth in official regulations to the energy spectra of the proton and a alpha prongs of the gelatin stars leads to a tissue star dose of 7.8 millirad or 45 millirem. The quoted values do not include the dose contribution from star-produced neutrons since neutrons do not leave visible prongs in emulsion. Nuclear theory, in good agreement with measurements of galactic radiation in the earth's atmosphere, indicates that the dose equivalent from neutrons is about equal to the one from all ionizing secondaries of stars. Application of this proposition to the star prong spectrum found on Apollo-Soyuz would set the total tissue star dose for the mission at approximately 90 millirem.

Schaefer, H. J.↗

Experience, lessons learned and methodology in the design of space systems to accommodate total dose and SEU effects

We now have considerable experience with successfully designing science systems to function properly, even during and after exposure to ionizing radiation approaching one Megarad, and during large solar particle events with substantial high Z fluxes such as the events that happened in August, 1972 and in the fall of 1989. Nevertheless, with changing device dimensions and properties, newer technologies and new applications, new problems arise. Some recent basic research has shed light on these problems and pointed the way to better diagnostic tests. In the case of single event upsets, clearly one cannot always accurately predict upset probabilities simply by knowing the quiescent Linear Energy Transfer (LET) threshold and the asymptotic cross-section of the device.

Trainor, James H.↗

Ames collaborative study of cosmic ray neutrons - Mid-latitude flights

Three aircraft flights at 12.5 km have yielded data on cosmic-ray neutron-flux densities, neutron dose equivalent rates, and exposure rates for ionizing radiation. The data, collected at 45, 38, and 48 degrees N, indicate: (1) neutron dose equivalent rates of 0.20, 0.14, and 0.22 mrem/hour, (2) exposure rates from the ionizing component of 0.37, 0.31, and 0.41 mR/hour, (3) that the dose equivalent from 3-13-MeV neutrons is 30% of the total for all neutrons, (4) that exposure rates decrease exponentially with decreasing pressure altitude with a 140 g/sq cm attenuation length at 43 degrees N geomagnetic latitude, and (5) that the ionizing component of cosmic ray secondaries is less sensitive to latitude changes than the neutron component.

Hewitt, J. E.↗

SEM analysis of ionizing radiation effects in an analog to digital converter /AD571/

The considered investigation is concerned with the study of the total-dose degradation mechanisms in an IIL analog to digital (A/D) converter. The A/D converter is a 10 digit device having nine separate functional units on the chip which encompass several hundred transistors and circuit elements. It was the objective of the described research to find the radiation sensitive elements by a systematic search of the devices on the LSI chip. The employed technique using a scanning electron microscope to determine the functional blocks of an integrated circuit which are sensitive to ionizing radiation and then progressively zeroing in on the soft components within those blocks, proved extremely successful on the AD571. Four functional blocks were found to be sensitive to radiation, including the Voltage Reference, DAC, IIL Clock, and IIL SAR.

Gauthier, M. K.↗

Modeling Ionizing Radiation for Spaceflight Dynamic Radioisotope Power Systems

This paper presents methods, simulations, and analyses for spaceflight ionizing radiation exposures to three dynamic radioisotope power systems(DRPSs). The specific systems being investigated are part of an open solicitation by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the US Department of Energy (DOE)to develop DRPS convertor technologies. The analyses include ionizing radiation sources from PuO2andgalactic cosmic rays (GCRs) over notional 20-year mission architectures with optional 10-year exposures from Jovian radiation environments. Total integrated doses to various components are calculated and compared to known material degradation thresholds in the open literature. Based on the findings, certain material trades are recommended for Jovian and non-Jovian mission architectures based solely on ionizing radiation. However, consideration is given to known and unknown synergistic degradation effects(i.e., radiation in combination with heat, pressure, or outgassing)that may be relevant to these systems and are not captured in these analyses.

Models↗

1986 Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, 23rd, Providence, RI, July 21-23, 1986, Proceedings

The present conference on the effects of nuclear and space radiation on electronic hardware gives attention to topics in the basic mechanisms of radiation effects, dosimetry and energy-dependent effects, electronic device radiation hardness assurance, SOI/SOS radiation effects, spacecraft charging and space radiation, IC radiation effects and hardening, single-event upset (SEU) phenomena and hardening, and EMP/SGEMP/IEMP phenomena. Specific treatments encompass the generation of interface states by ionizing radiation in very thin MOS oxides, the microdosimetry of meson energy deposited on 1-micron sites in Si, total dose radiation and engineering studies, plasma interactions with biased concentrator solar cells, the transient imprint memory effect in MOS memories, mechanisms leading to SEU, and the vaporization and breakdown of thin columns of water.

Ellis, Thomas D.↗

Effects of ionizing radiation on charge-coupled imagers

The effects of ionizing radiation on three different charge coupled imagers have been investigated. Device performance was evaluated as a function of total gamma ray dose. The principal failure mechanisms have been identified for each particular device structure. The clock and bias voltages required for high total dose operation of the devices are presented.

Killiany, J. M.↗

Radiation exposure predictions for long-duration-stay Mars missions

In this study, the ionizing radiation environment is estimated, using the Mission Radiation Calculation (MIRACAL) program, for several long-duration-stay Mars missions proposed for early in the 21(sup st) century. Both minimum energy and fast transfer missions are evaluated and their 30-day maximum, annual maximum, and total slab skin and blood-forming organ (BFO) doses are compared. When large flares were included while the astronauts were on the surface, the delivered dose did not significantly contribute to the total dose (less than 4 cSv BFO dose, or 8 percent of the guideline annual limit, for the most energetic event simulated) due to the substantial protection provided by the Martian atmosphere. However, dose delivered by large flares during transit is dependent on vehicle shielding and distance from the Sun. All of the fast transfer missions studied had lower total and annual maximum doses than the corresponding minimum energy transfer missions (on average, 30% less for missions having no large flares and the shielding thicknesses evaluated in this study). For all the missions studied, having the astronauts spend one-third of their day during transit in a 10 g/sq cm storm shelter resulted in an approximate 10% reduction in the total mission dose.

TOTAL SLAB SKIN↗

JSC Avionics Ionizing Radiation Effects Standard (AIRES)

This document, the JSC Engineering Directorate Avionics Ionizing Radiation Effects Standard (AIRES), provides design, test, and analysis requirements to ensure electronic hardware meets functional, performance and reliability requirements in the mission ionizing radiation environment. This suite of activities is referred to as Radiation Hardening Assurance (RHA) and is an integral part of the hardware design process.

Ionizing Radiation↗