This paper presents the PIX instrument based on a raspberry Pi and a MiniPIX device dedicated to make measurements of ionizing particles onboard stratospheric balloons. The hardware part and the software part of the PIX instrument are described. All the characteristics of the instrument are given in this paper. The three flight opportunities are also presented, with the associated measurements. The methodology to calculate fluxes based on measurements is explained. In particular, the calculation of response functions of protons, electrons, and photons by using Monte-Carlo simulations, the identification algorithm based on a neural network trained with simulated data, and the calculation of fluxes from count rates are described. Some measurements performed in different facilities are presented. A part of these experimental tracks have been used to challenge the neural network previously trained with simulated date, to check the robustness of the algorithm. Proton, electron, and photon fluxes are presented and compared to the MAIRE model.

Eutelsat 7C (E7C), a telecommunication spacecraft, was launched on June 21, 2019 and reached geostationary (GEO) orbit four months later after a quasi-equatorial electric orbit raising (EOR) phase. An Influence sur les Composant Avanc & eacute;s des Radiations de l'Espace, Nouvelle G & eacute;n & eacute;ration (ICARE-NG) radiation monitor was implemented on the spacecraft allowing the measurements of electron and proton flux as well as single event upset (SEU) effect affecting various static random access memories (SRAMs) and dynamic random access memories (DRAMs). According to the cruise to GEO profile, two phases could be deduced, a first one where SEU events are dominated by trapped protons and a second one where they are attributed to cosmic rays and solar proton events. In this article, SEU events attributed to trapped particles as well as proton flux recorded by ICARE-NG are used to benchmark proton specification models, Aerospace Proton version 8 (AP8), Aerospace Proton version 9 (AP9), and Global Radiation Earth ENvironment-proton (GREEN-p). Although the 3-D shielding of the spacecraft and payload is considered to transport accurately the proton environment down to the chip, ground tests to define cross section were not reliable enough to draw clear conclusion on specification model performances along EOR orbits.

In the New Space context, more and more industrials consider Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) components in their design for space equipment, i.e. non-hardened products. The need for qualification of those devices, mainly to destructive effects, is thus growing. As a consequence, beam time at heavy ion broad beam facility is becoming increasingly hard to obtain, as well as being expensive. In the meantime, cheaper and effective alternatives to heavy ion broad beam may be valuable for a pre-screening of the sensitivities of devices to destructive events. This study has thus been motivated by the CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) for evaluating the alternatives for pre-selecting good COTS candidate for flight missions. Three alternative methods were thus investigated: pulsed X-rays, pulsed laser and Cf252 source. The sensitivity of several devices, known to be sensitive to Single Event Latchup under heavy ions, is evaluated with those alternative facilities.

In this work, we investigate events on power consumption in a Magnetic RAM using heavy ion microbeam and pulsed laser. This study was initially motivated by various questions remained opened for MRAM in the literature such as the possibility of its occurrence in flight, its impact on long-term operation or the mitigation techniques. The nature and origin of such current events was also investigated. The spatio-temporal resolution of laser and heavy ion microbeam was useful to locate the sensitive areas and to study the evolution of the current after the event triggering. These test methods also avoid any test artifact related to multiple impacts. Various tests and current mappings were performed, first all over the MRAM, and later specifically in the sensitive areas to investigate the distributions of the sensitive zones and current levels. Complementary tests were performed to clarify the nature of these events.

A new proton beam-line dedicated to R&D programs has been developed at Centre Antoine Lacassagne (CAL), in Nice (France), in collaboration with the Centre national d' etudes spatiales (CNES). This is the second beam-line of the MEDICYC 65 MeV cyclotron that is currently in operation, the first being the clinical `eye-line' used for ocular proton therapy. The R&D beam-line is proposed with two configurations, the first producing a Gaussian narrow beam of a few mm width, the second a 100 mm diameter flat beam with a homogeneity better than +/- 3%. The energy range is (20 - similar to 60) MeV, where the exact upper limit depends on the beam configuration being used. The energy spread of the non-degraded beam is (0.3 +/- 0.1) MeV. A beam current between 10 pA and 10 mu A can be produced with a stability better than 0.2% above 100 pA, and 2% below. The beam can be monitored online at a precision better than 5% in the flux range 1E5 (1E6) - 1E9 (1E10) p/cm(2)/s for a flat (Gaussian) configuration, although work is in progress to extend this range. Targeted applications for the R&D beam-line are instrumentation research, radiation tolerance tests of components and radiobiology.

This work is a contribution to the use of alternative SEE test methods. We first report collected charge measurements and simulations in a p-i-n photodiode. The main purpose was to evaluate parameters leading to the correlation between heavy ion broadbeam and microbeam, pulsed X-rays and laser pulses. This study also relies on coupled and analytical simulation to further understand the physical phenomena involved. SEL current shape acquired on a CMOS ASIC were also analyzed and confirm the correlation of these test methods at the temporal scale. These results were then used to study SEU bursts in an SRAM with pulsed X-rays and heavy ions.

The effect of dose on NPN bipolar transistors is investigated for irradiation performed at low temperatures. Degradation of forward-Gummel curves and current gain is shown. After a low temperature irradiation there is two possible case. For irradiation temperature of 250K and above, there is no effect induced by the low temperature irradiation. For irradiation temperature of 225K and below a reduce current gain can be obtained for low Vbe.

Alternative SEE test methods are increasingly sought after. This work is a contribution to the use of a pulsed X-rays beam. The main objective was to evaluate the parameters leading to the correlation between pulsed X-rays, broadbeam heavy ions, and laser pulses on wide bandgap component technologies (SiC and GaN). Indeed, these technologies can present preparation issues and pulsed X-rays can be an interesting solution to overcome them. Comparisons were also performed to study non-destructive and destructive events with different levels of package thinning of the devices allowing to rule on the capacity of pulsed X-rays to cross these packages.

The electron induced SEU risk on Earth missions is usually considered as negligible, though previous works have demonstrated that electrons could trigger SEU in CMOS devices. In fact, the high energy electron fluxes are too low in Earth space environment to represent a real threat, from the SEE point of view, in currently used device technologies for space applications. Nevertheless, the increasing use of highly integrated CMOS technologies raises the question of the SEU electron sensitivity in the most recent technology nodes. Moreover, if the SEU sensitivity becomes significant in sub-28-nm devices, the system reliability may also be affected by the MBU risk. This work investigates about the electron induced SEU sensitivity of recent CMOS technologies. The related question of the MBU risk due to electrons in space environment is also studied. The devices exposed to electron beams are SRAM-based Xilinx FPGA manufactured in 20-nm planar and 16-nm FinFET technologies. Detailed 3D device circuit models were done with TRADCARE®. This tool was also used as interface to GEANT4 for forward Monte-Carlo simulations. An SRAM cell electrical layout was also implemented in TRADCARE to consider the electrical behaviour of the circuit. The TRADCARE/GEANT4 calculation outputs were used to explain and discuss the experimental sensitivities observed under 18 MeV electron beam.

The contribution of Coulomb processes induced by incident electrons in single event upset (SEU) sensitivity is investigated. The case of 65-nm silicon on insulator (SOI) memory is studied. Several orbits (GPS, Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer’s (JUICE’s) orbits) are analyzed. The relative importance to the total SEU rate of electron, proton, and gamma environments is compared. SEU induced by electrons is obtained during Earth missions. In the environment of Jupiter, equivalent SEU sensitivities have been obtained between the studied device and the European Space Agency (ESA) SEU monitor. However, the relative importance of the physical processes involved is very different. Proton-induced SEU rates are estimated about one decade greater than electron-induced SEU rates. The Bremsstrahlung contribution has been found negligible in such an environment.

In modern technologies, Single Event Upsets can be induced by Low Energy Protons. This phenomenon has been described in the literature for many years now, considering technology nodes lower than 90 nm. Few complete sets of data are available considering low-scale devices, to assess their sensitivity to the proton direct ionization phenomenon and determine the impact of the technology node. This study proposes to assess the in-orbit impact of the direct ionization phenomenon for devices of a technology node of 45 and 28 nm, fully SEU characterized. The importance of the mechanical environment for the prediction is also discussed, as well as the impact of the straggling effect.

This article proposes a method using electron and proton Single Event Upset sensitivities of a device to deduce all simulation parameters related to an RPP approach. It is shown that for 45-nm double data rate (DDR) memory, the RPP approach is still relevant and the crossing of proton and electron data makes it possible to constrain and properly define the associated parameters. Heavy ion prediction is also presented.

This paper describes a comparison between in-orbit single-event effects (SEE) rate measurement acquired by the CARMEN-3 experiment on-board the JASON-3 satellite (middle earth orbit, 1336 km, 66°) and an estimation using SEE rate calculation approaches from several facilities. A SRAM memory sensitive to single-event latchup (SEL) has been monitored in orbit, and the number of events per day was estimated using monoenergetic data coming from the Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut (protons) and Université Catholique de Louvain (heavy-ions) facilities as well as using mixed-field data coming from the Cern High energy AcceleRator Mixed field (CHARM) facility. A comparison of both estimations with respect to the in-flight measurement has been carried out.

With the increase of sensitivity of devices to single-event upsets (SEUs), the possibility to trigger an upset with incident electrons has been recently raised. All the mechanisms susceptible to trigger the SEUs are investigated in detail. New measurements performed on the field programmable gate array static random access memory based from Xilinx Spartan 6 at 1 MeV seem to confirm two SEU regions with the transition located around 10 MeV.

The SEE sensitivity of electronic devices to high energy electrons has been put in evidence experimentally. Several ground experiments have shown that electron induced SEE could occur in recent technologies. In the case of the JUICE mission, the expected electron environment is harsher than for Earth orbits. The impact of such electron fluxes on the embedded electronics was assessed in this work. The study focused on SRAM memories SEU sensitivity. Three different device references were tested under electrons, as well as under protons and heavy ions. The electron and the low energy proton direct ionization contributions to the total SEU rate have been studied in more detail.

This paper is dedicated to the investigation of single-event effects (SEEs) in different types of silicon Schottky diodes using heavy ions and laser pulses. The objectives are both to progress in heavy ions and laser correlations using simple devices and to further understand the impact of optical and electrical parameters on photogeneration in Schottky diodes to contribute to the use of pulsed lasers for single-event sensitivity studies. Heavy ion test results on planar and trenched commercial Schottky diodes are presented. Based on these results, pulsed laser tests and transient measurements were performed on the sensitive devices. Destructive single events were evidenced with both techniques. Significant parameters of the laser tests, such as backside aperture of the device, electrical and optical configuration are discussed. These investigations show the potential of laser testing for Schottky diode SEE sensitivity study.

In this study, we demonstrate the capability to detect microscopic stable displacement nature created by proton irradiations with a method based on the discrimination of the three major low frequency noise sources generally observed in semiconductor devices. Low frequency noise measurements are carried out in silicon in-situ phosphorus doped polycrystalline silicon serpentine resistance used as test vehicle. We observe that for the pristine sample, the voltage noise power density can be explained only considering 1/f and thermal noise contribution on the total noise, while for irradiated sample generation recombination noise prevails. Preliminary results on low frequency noise spectroscopy, used as a diagnostic tool in order to identify stable traps created by protons irradiations are presented.

In order to identify the physical mechanism of retention time drop in irradiated SDRAM cell, we implemented the Gossick model of displacement damage cluster into a TCAD simulation tool. Simulation results show that the cluster's position is the key parameter of the phenomenon. Besides that, obtained results are coherent with previous studies and explained by semiconductor physics. Other technological parameters of the cell also influence its response to displacement damage clusters. Leakage current induced by clusters depends exponentially on temperature.