JAEA-Review-2010-065.pdf:15.99MB - 日本原子力研究開発機構

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Evaluation of Single Event Effects on Commercial-off-
the-Shelf Semiconductors for Space Flight Applications
I. Kato a) , S. Matsuda a) , S. Baba b) , T. Hirose b) , J. Ohya b) , H. Okamoto b) , H. Katayama c) ,
M. Naitoh c) , M. Harada c) , M. Suganuma c) and Y. Tange c)
a) Space System Department, Kamakura Works, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation,
b) Quality Assurance Division, Ryoei Technica Corporation,
c) Earth Observation Research Center, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Nowadays, there are increasing interests in applying the
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices widely used in the
ground-based systems to space satellites, which may reduce
the size and cost of satellite systems as well as shorten the
time for development. However, one has to intensively
evaluate potential risks of using them in the space radiation
environment before they are put on board for actual flights.
We are developing a compact infra-red camera (CIRC)
for the earth observation from the space, in which we utilize
the design of an already developed one for the ground use
with some appropriate modifications. Its preliminary
design was known to contain 9 COTS semiconductor
devices whose sensitivity to the single event effects (SEEs)
was unknown. Hence, we performed heavy-ion irradiation
test on them to evaluate it. Among variations of SEEs, we
have concentrated in this test on such effects that could
cause fatal failure resulting in potential permanent loss of
system functions, such as Single Event Latch-up (SEL).
The test was conducted at TIARA in TARRI, JAEA.
Nine COTS devices tested were as listed in Table 1; a
driver/receiver, a gate inverter (Gate Inv.), a reset IC, a
thermoelectric cooler (TEC) driver, a multiplexer (MUX), a
synchronous static random access memory (SSRAM), a
flash memory (Flash), an analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The devices
under test (DUT) were set in JAXA’s irradiation chamber
installed in the HD2 course in TIARA facility and a cocktail
ion beam with M/Q = 5 was irradiated on them. Every
DUT was powered during the irradiation and the supply
current was monitored to detect possible SEL event. The
device temperature was nominally kept at 80 °C during the
irradiation, while it was at 40-65 °C in some cases. For
each device, 3 samples were exposed to 129 Xe 23+ beam with
a linear energy transfer (LET) value of 69.2 MeV-cm 2 /mg.
Irradiation was continued until the total fluence reached
1 × 10 5 ions/cm 2 , or otherwise until enough number of
detected SEL events was accumulated when happened.
After irradiation, samples were tested for its functionality.
When SEL event was detected during the irradiation and/or
a sample was found to be functionally broken at the
post-irradiation test about a certain device, additional
irradiations were performed on that device using other
species of ions, where we used either 84 Kr 17+ (LET =
39.9 MeV-cm 2 /mg), 40 Ar 8+ (LET = 15.3 MeV-cm 2 /mg), or
20 Ne 4+ (LET = 6.3 MeV-cm 2 /mg) ions depending on what
kind of SEE was observed.
JAEA-Review 2010-065
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Among 9 devices tested, the driver/receiver, the Gate inv.,
the MUX, the TEC driver and the reset IC showed no
evidence of SEL event happening during 129 Xe 23+ beam
irradiation. They also passed the functional testing after
the irradiation. The results mean the SEL cross-section for
them is below 1 × 10 -5 cm 2 at LET = 69.2 MeV-cm 2 /mg.
Some SEL signals were detected during 129 Xe 23+ irradiation
on the other 4 devices. They, except for the DAC, were
found to be functioning in the post-irradiation testing,
indicating that they are recoverable by a power cycle even if
SEL happens. The DAC was found not to be functional.
Additional irradiation was conducted with 40 Ar 8+ ion on
4 devices which had shown the SEL sensitivity above.
Neither the SSRAM nor Flash shows any evidence of SEL,
indicating that their SEL threshold lies between 15.3 and
69.2 MeV-cm 2 /mg. They also passed functional tests after
irradiation. The ADC and DAC showed some SEL signals.
The ADC was properly functioning after the irradiation,
while the DAC was not. The ADC and DAC were further
irradiated by other ion species. The ADC showed no SEL
evidence during 20 Ne 4+ irradiation, indicating its SEL
threshold lies between 6.3 and 15.3 MeV-cm 2 /mg. Its
functionality is recoverable by a power cycle when SEL
happens. Further DAC samples were devoted for 84 Kr 17+
irradiation in order to evaluate consequent risks to a single
SEL event. It was observed that a device temperature rose
by about 10 °C from nominal after a single SEL occurred,
which could be due to the increased current caused by the
SEL. The DAC failed the post-irradiation testing, again.
In summary, 4 out of 9 devices tested were found to be
SEL-sensitive at some level, as shown in Table 1. Except
for the DAC, they are recoverable from SEL events by a
power cycle. The DAC was found to lose its functions
after an SEL. We have evaluated possible risks of using
them in the space based on the above results and properly
reflected them to the CIRC’s design to avoid the risks.
Table 1 Summary of SEE test results for 9 COTS devices.
DUT SEL threshold Reflection to design
Driver/Receiver
Gate Inverter
Reset IC
TEC driver
> 69.2
[MeV-cm 2 /mg]
Use as is
(Function
recoverable from
SEL by power cycle)
Multiplexer
SSRAM
Flash memory
15.3 - 69.2
ADC 6.3 - 15.3
DAC < 15.3 To be replaced