8th June 2015, Rome
A neutron irradiation facility for space applications
Speaker:
Prof. Christofer Frost (ISIS neutron facility, UK)
Location: ASI, Sala Cassini – Via Del Politecnico snc, Roma
Abstract:
The negative effect of atmospheric neutrons on the reliability advanced electronic devices has been of interest for a number of years as the decreasing scale and increasing complexity of such devices increases the potential impact of this natural radiation environment for safety critical and commercial devices and systems. In this talk a new instrument, ChipIr, at the ISIS facility Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK will be briefly described. The instrument is designed to provide accelerated testing of electronics by providing a high flux, high energy and broad neutron field matching the atmospheric spectrum. At ISIS this has been achieved by alteration of the Second Target Station to provide the fast neutron beam from a target which was primarily design to produce thermal and cold neutrons for generalised condensed matter science. The instrument also incorporates various features to make testing easy and efficient and the flexibility to potentially alter the beam with filters to enable testing in other regimes.