Dose gradient assessment at the new CERN CHARM irradiation facility

A Infantino,C Cangialosi,M Krawina,M Brucoli,M Brugger,J.P De Carvalho Saraiva,S Danzeca

doi:10.1016/j.radphyschem.2018.09.001

A Infantino, C Cangialosi + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radphyschem.2018.09.001

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Abstract

CERN CHARM facility provides a unique complex radiation environment characterized by particle energy spectra representative of high-energy accelerators, ground and atmospheric conditions and space applications. CHARM is conceived to be an irradiation facility for the qualification of large electronic systems and components in a mixed field radiation environment generated from the interaction of a 24 GeV/c proton beam with a copper or aluminium target. A movable shielding made of layers of concrete and iron allows changing the hardness and the particle population (neutron, proton, kaon, pion, muon, electron, positron, and photon) in predefined test locations. To ensure a full representativeness and reproducibility of the tests, an accurate dosimetry of the complex mixed irradiation field is mandatory. The significant size of the available test area, the multiple facility configurations as well as the strong radiation gradient present in some of the test locations make the radiation monitoring a challenge. This work provides a first characterization of the absorbed dose gradient in two specific test locations: T0, a high dose rate test location close the target revolver; R11, a standard test location for irradiation tests on electronics equipment and devices. Experimental measurements conducted with RPL dosimeters and pMOS RadFET sensors were coupled with FLUKA Monte Carlo simulation. The concluding comparison shows an overall good agreement, considering the strong dose gradient and the limitation of the dosimeters in the mixed field environment.

Highlights

The irradiation facility called CHARM (CERN High energy AcceleRator Mixed field/facility) has been built at CERN between 2013 and 2014, in the framework of the Radiation to Electronics (R2E) project, with the main purpose of testing electronic equipment in a radiation field similar to the one occurring at CERN accelerators
With regard to the accelerator environment, the complex radiation field of stray particles present within CERN accelerators is composed by a mix of charged and neutral hadrons, photons, muons and electrons/positrons of energies ranging from GeVs down to thermal energies: electronic devices and systems operating in such an environment are simultaneously affected by Single Event Effects (SEEs), Total Ionizing Dose (TID)1 and Displacement Damage (DD)
All the dosimeters agree within a factor 1.3 with FLUKA simulation: we find this agreement satisfactory since, due to the relative position of the dosimeters with respect to the target and the strong dose gradient in both x/z-direction, small uncertainty in the positioning of the dosimeters can lead to a significant difference in the dose estimation

Summary

Introduction

The irradiation facility called CHARM (CERN High energy AcceleRator Mixed field/facility) has been built at CERN between 2013 and 2014, in the framework of the Radiation to Electronics (R2E) project, with the main purpose of testing electronic equipment in a radiation field similar to the one occurring at CERN accelerators (e.g. in the Large Hadron Collider - LHC). This facility is used for testing devices within accelerator representative environments, but its available radiation fields are characteristics for ground and atmospheric environments as well as for space environments (Mekki et al, 2016). The number of primary protons interacting with the target (Protons On Target - POT) is measured by a secondary emission counter (SEC) placed upstream the

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