TA12-379: Evaluation of high energy proton tests for COTS de-risking

https://radnext.web.cern.ch/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/radnext EDMS NO. 3355747 VALIDITY Released REV. 1.0 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17288078 RADNEXT Transnational Access Summary Report Project title Evaluation of high energy proton tests for COTS de-risking Project TA identifier TA12-379 General application Space Type of test SEE Group leader, Institute Samuel DUBOS, TRAD Tests & Radiations Co-authors, Institutes Enoal LE GOULVEN, Pierre GARCIA, Jeremy GUILLERMIN, Leo COIC Date(s) of the experiment 22/06/2025 Facility PSI Amount of access granted 16 h Objectives of the experiments The goal of this experiment was to evaluate the relevance of high energy proton beam for SEEs testing of COTS, more particularly for destructive SEEs. Indeed, proton board testing [1] is increasingly requested by New Space industrials, as the budget and delay associated with such tests is reduced compared to heavy ion tests on individual parts. However, such tests might underestimate the sensitivity of devices to destructive Single Event Effects, as proton-induced SEEs are mainly produced by secondary ions with very short range. Indeed, many works support the evidence that secondary heavy ions produced by protons through nuclear reactions are very short ranged, with low averaged LET value, which is thus limiting for triggering SEEs such as Single Event Latchup, or Single Event Burnout [2][3]. This project, performed along with the CNES, first involved simulations to study the proton nuclear reactions in Silicon. Then, devices with a known sensitivity to destructive Single Event Effects, with various LET thresholds below 15 MeV.cm²/mg, were selected. The final step was to perform high energy proton tests on these devices to determine if these sensitivities to destructive SEEs can be revealed only with proton tests. Experiment test report For the experiment, 9 candidates were selected to undergo proton test. These 9 devices have complete characterization under heavy ions and their sensitivity to Single Event Latchup have been demonstrated in the past, with LETth<15 MeV.cm²/mg. The 9 test candidates are presented in the table below: EDMS 3355747 v.1 status In Work access Restricted PDF from TA12-379-Zenodo.doc modified 2025-10-07 16:13 https://radnext.web.cern.ch/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/radnext EDMS NO. 3355747 VALIDITY Released REV. 1.0 Reference Function SEL LETth (MeV.cm²/mg) STM706M6F Supply supervisor 3<LETth<10.2 (VDD=5.5V, T=25°C) STLM75DS2F Digital Temperature Sensor and Thermal Watchdog 3.3<LETth<5.7 (VDD=3.6V, T=85°C) Si7414DN-T1-E3 [4] N-MOSFET LETth<2.7 @VDS=45V MAX6301ESA+ Watchdog 5.7<LETth<10 (VDD=3.3V, T=25°C) MCP23018 I²C16-BIT I/O EXPANDER 10<LETth<16 (VDD=3.3V, T=25°C) BSI SRAM (VDD=3.3V, T=25°C) SRAM memory SRAM LETth<1.3 (VDD=3.3V, T=64°C) MCP2551-I/SN [5] Transceiver CAN 5<LETth<10 (VCC=5V, T=25°C & 85°) LTC2052 [6] OP Amp 5<LETth<8.2 (T=25°C) LETth<5 (T=25°C) TABLE 1: References selected for the test campaign For the proton test campaign, at least 4 samples of each reference were prepared, and the test benches were operated in the same condition (biasing and temperature), as during the heavy ion tests. Generic information about the TRAD GeV test bench for SEL, and the CNES TILU2 test bench for SEL, can be found in [7]. The proton energy used was the maximum energy available of ~200 MeV, and a fluence of 1E+11 p+/cm² was reached for each sample (or less depending on the number of events observed). Test results are still under analysis, but very few references mentioned in the table above showed a sensitivity to SEL induced by protons: only 1/3 of the devices were sensitive to SELs, despite fluences >4E+11 reached on the different references. The remaining work for this study, after thorough analysis of the test results, will consists in estimating the risk associated with a null result under proton, in the case of a board testing for example. The objective is to determine the differences in in-orbit MTTF (Mean Time To Failure) calculated, between a component sensitive to SEL induced by protons, and a reference not sensitive under protons. An abstract will also be submitted for the RADECS 2026 conference to present the test results obtained and the analysis. [1] Board Level Proton Testing Book of Knowledge for NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging Program, Steven M. Guertin Jet Propulsion Laboratory Pasadena, California, JPL Publication 17-7 11/17 [2] D. M. Hiemstra and E. W. Blackmore, "LET spectra of proton energy levels from 50 to 500 MeV and their effectiveness for single event effects characterization of microelectronics," in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 2245-2250, Dec. 2003, doi: 10.1109/TNS.2003.821811 [3] R. Ladbury, J. . -M. Lauenstein and K. P. Hayes, "Use of Proton SEE Data as a Proxy for Bounding Heavy-Ion SEE Susceptibility," in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 2505-2510, Dec. 2015, doi: 10.1109/TNS.2015.2496351. [4] J. -M. Lauenstein et al., "Recent Radiation Test Results for Trench Power MOSFETs," 2017 IEEE https://radnext.web.cern.ch/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/radnext EDMS NO. 3355747 VALIDITY Released REV. 1.0 Radiation Effects Data Workshop (REDW), New Orleans, LA, USA, 2017, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/NSREC.2017.8115473. [5] V. S. Anashin et al., "Test Results Obtained on the Low and High Energies Heavy Ion Test Facilities," 2015 IEEE Radiation Effects Data Workshop (REDW), Boston, MA, USA, 2015, pp. 1-4, doi: 10.1109/REDW.2015.7336738. [6] F. Irom, S. G. Agarwal and M. Amrbar, "Compendium of Single-Event Latchup and Total Ionizing Dose Test Results of Commercial and Radiation Tolerant Operational Amplifiers," 2014 IEEE Radiation Effects Data Workshop (REDW), Paris, France, 2014, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/REDW.2014.7004561. [7] S. Dubos et al., "Review of Alternatives to Heavy Ions Broad Beam for SEL Screening of COTS," 2023 23rd European Conference on Radiation and Its Effects on Components and Systems (RADECS), Toulouse, France, 2023, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/RADECS59069.2023.10767026. Outcome of the experiments Please indicate what the experiment is likely to lead to by putting an ‘X’ next to one or more of the possible outcomes below. Journal publication X Data for Thesis Follow-up experiment at same facility Follow-up experiment at another facility Other As a RADNEXT user, we encourage you to submit the scientific results of your experiments to journals as well as to the NSREC and RADECS data workshops. Please remember to include the RADNEXT acknowledgment into your publications! RADNEXT acknowledgment: This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101008126.