Abstract
This article provides a review of semiconductor based ionising radiation sensors to measure accumulated dose and detect individual strikes of ionising particles. The measurement of ionising radiation (γ-ray, X-ray, high energy UV-ray and heavy ions, etc.) is essential in several critical reliability applications such as medical, aviation, space missions and high energy physics experiments considering safety and quality assurance. In the last few decades, numerous techniques based on semiconductor devices such as diodes, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and solid-state photomultipliers (SSPMs), etc., have been reported to estimate the absorbed dose of radiation with sensitivity varying by several orders of magnitude from μGy to MGy. In addition, the mitigation of soft errors in integrated circuits essentially requires detection of charged particle induced transients and digital bit-flips in storage elements. Depending on the particle energies, flux and the application requirements, several sensing solutions such as diodes, static random access memory (SRAM) and NAND flash, etc., are reported in the literature. This article goes through the evolution of radiation dosimeters and particle detectors implemented using semiconductor technologies and summarises the features with emphasis on their underlying principles and applications. In addition, this article performs a comparison of the different methodologies while mentioning their advantages and limitations.
Highlights
The radiation effects community, comprising physicists, medical researchers, nuclear reactors, and accelerator engineers, have long been working on analysing the effects of ionising radiation
In the last few decades, numerous techniques based on semiconductor devices such as diodes, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and solid-state photomultipliers (SSPMs), etc., have been reported to estimate the absorbed dose of radiation with sensitivity varying by several orders of magnitude from μGy to MGy
Ionising radiation is a severe concern for reliable operation of electronic systems, in data centres, flight control systems, satellite payloads and scientific instruments used in various applications
Summary
The radiation effects community, comprising physicists, medical researchers, nuclear reactors, and accelerator engineers, have long been working on analysing the effects of ionising radiation. The major source of radiation in the extraterrestrial space environment [24,25] are galactic cosmic rays (high-energy protons and heavy ions), intermittent solar emissions (low energy protons, plasma, and magnetic flux), and radiation belts comprising charged particles accumulated around planetary bodies. The effects of radiation from the extraterrestrial sources are largely reduced due to the interaction with the Earth’s atmosphere It encounters radiation primarily from the high-energy flux of cosmic-ray neutrons generated. Radiation 2021, 1 in the process of nuclear interactions between the protons and the atmospheric elements Another major source is considered to be the α particles emitted from the natural radioactive isotopes and local impurities present in electronic devices (such as chip packages). Even though these sources can account for very high dose rates, affecting the microelectronics, the total amount of absorbed dose by the personnel are kept within manageable limits due to short exposure time as mandated by the safety standards
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