Atmospheric neutrons and alpha particles

Atmospheric NEUTRONS and ALPHA particle contaminations are responsible for disrupting electronic devices.

• Who is concerned :
  • Aerospace industries : reliability of electronic systems.
  • Electronic manufacturers : deep submicronic technologies.

• Single Event Effects
  • SEL : Latch up, destructive phenomena.
  • SET : Transients, propagating glitches.
  • SEU : Upsets, memory structure flips.
  • SEGR, SEB, SEFI…

Test methods (our tests are compliant with the JEDEC 089 specifications)

• ASER (Accelerated Soft Errors Rate test)
  • Neutron facility : CEA Valduc, Los Alamos.
  • Alpha source : Am241 available at TRAD

• SSER (System SER or unaccelerated SER test)
  • Natural radioactive flux
  • Several months for reliable statistics

• ASER Data processing (ANGEL software)
  • Prediction of neutron spectra / application.
  • Number of SER(neutron) for application spectra.
  • SER(neutron) prediction from SEE test results.
  • Total SER estimate with alpha test results.

Atmospheric Neutrons and Alpha particle contaminations are problems today, and testing their effects is the solution for tomorrow.

Neutron tests are performed to study the effects of neutron interactions in electronic systems.

MIL STD 883 : Method 1017.2

• Neutron beam characteristics
  • Fluency : 10⁹ to 10¹⁵ neutrons/cm2.
  • Energy spectra : 1 MeV to 14 MeV

• Observed phenomena
  • Displacement damage.
  • Permanent electrical parameter drifts.

• Data analysis
  • Neutron hardness evaluation.
  • Design neutron fluence correlation.

Thanks to our long experience in neutron testing, military experts trust us in performing neutron test using their facilities.

Neutrons (fast and thermal) and dose rate