空间粒子环境对单粒子效应影响的比较

空间的高能重离子和高能质子都能引起单粒子效应。几种典型环境中的重离子和质子对不同器件单粒子效应的影响的比较表明，在地磁捕获质子强度较大的区域，捕获质子对单粒子效应的作用必须考虑；而在该区域以外，对单粒子效应的发生有显著影响的是宇宙射线的重离子而不是占绝大多数的质子。     

基于TCAD和Geant 4的SRAM单粒子效应评估

基于Geant4和TCAD (Technology-Computer Aided-Design)建立了一套评估静态存储器(SRAM)单粒子效应的方法. 该方法利用TCAD软件模拟半导体存储单元对粒子能量沉积的响应, 获得SRAM的重离子单粒子翻转截面, 并应用蒙特卡罗工具包Geant 4计算质子与硅材料的核反应以及次级粒子在灵敏体积内的能量沉积, 进而获得质子的单粒子翻转率. 利用该方法, 计算了TSMC 0.18 μm未加固SRAM的重离子和质子翻转率, 通过与同工艺SRAM的重离子实验结果进行比较, 初步验证了该方法的有效性. 该方法不依赖于地面模拟实验, 可以用来评估处于设计阶段的抗辐射加固器件.      

质子单粒子翻转截面计算方法

在分析质子与硅反应的基础上,建立了质子单粒子翻转截面理论计算模型,提出了模拟计算方法。计算得到了不同能量的高能质子与硅反应产生的次级粒子种类、截面、能谱和双微分截面。采用Monte Carlo方法模拟质子与硅的反应;应用TRIM程序计算次级粒子的射程;计算得到次级粒子在存储单元的灵敏区内沉积的能量,产生的电荷。通过与临界电荷的比较,判断是否导致单粒子翻转,从而得到单粒子翻转截面。计算得到的单粒子翻转截面与实验数据符合较好。     

质子引发的单粒子翻转率估算的研究

根据质子单粒子翻转事件的物理本质,及空间高能质子环境特性,给出了一种基于重离子单粒子翻转实验数据基础之上的估算质子引发的单粒子翻转的方法.利用这种方法计算了几种器件的翻转情况,与地面模拟实验及飞行观测结果符合得非常好.      

脉冲激光模拟空间载荷单粒子效应研究进展

脉冲激光作为模拟测试空间探测载荷半导体器件的单粒子效应现象的一种较新型手段,具有可以定位器件对单粒子效应敏感的具体单元以及动态测试电路系统对单粒子效应的时间响应特性的特点,能够满足工程部门、器件研发部门的不同需求。通过实验与理论研究,建立单粒子锁定与翻转效应的激光阈值能量与重离子LET值的对应关系,解决了脉冲激光模拟测试的激光结果如何定量的关键问题,据此可以定量摸底评估器件的单粒子效应敏感度,使脉冲激光测试载荷的结果更具评价以及指导意义,这对建立统一的脉冲激光单粒子效应评估试验标准以及对脉冲激光试验的推广具有重要意义。空间探测载荷发生单粒子效应后器件功能特性及电路系统的影响、防范单粒子效应电路条件影响的手段下电路系统的抗单粒子效应设计措施是的有效性,以及为空间探测专门研制的抗辐射ASIC电路评价,都需要更加精细的单粒子效应测试方法。通过建立便捷、低成本的脉冲激光定量试验的手段,解决了空间探测载荷上述单粒子效应试验的问题。     

存储器空间单粒子翻转率预测

根据SSO上两卫星搭载的三个PREM测得的空间中重离子LET谱,以及利用Weibull分布模型拟合出的不同器件的σ-LET曲线,对由空间中重离子引起的单粒子翻转的翻转率进行了预测估算.将预测值与实测值对比,分析了影响翻转率的因素.对于相同器件,翻转率与设备在卫星上的位置和朝向有关.位于卫星尾部面向后退（-x）方向的翻转率高于位于底部对地（+z）方向的器件翻转率;太阳活动水平高的时间段翻转率高于太阳活动水平低的时间段.探测器接收的重离子微分LET谱的强度和硬度决定了器件的单粒子翻转率.在高于翻转LET阈值时,LET谱的强度越高,其硬度和翻转率越大.不同器件的翻转率也不相同.      

临近空间大气中子诱发电子器件单粒子翻转模拟研究

根据重离子试验数据, 采用长方体(RPP)模型, 用GEANT4软件工具包编程, 建立了垂直于器件表面入射的中子诱发电子器件的单粒子翻转模型. 考虑敏感体积及其附近的次级粒子对单粒子翻转的贡献, 统计了次级粒子在敏感体积内沉积能量的微分能谱分布, 对在敏感体积内沉积不同能量的次级粒子对单粒子翻转的贡献进行了区分计算, 模拟计算结果与地面试验结果符合较好.      

130nm体硅反相器链的单粒子瞬态脉宽特性研究

针对130 nm体硅反相器链,利用脉冲激光和重离子实验研究了目标电路单粒子瞬态（SET）的脉宽特性,并分析了电路被辐射诱发的SET脉宽特性受激光能量、重离子线性能量传递（LET）值、PMOS管栅长尺寸等因素的影响机制。重离子和脉冲激光实验结果类似,均表现为随激光能量、LET值的增加,电路被辐射诱发的SET脉宽逐步增大,且表现出明显的双（多）峰分布趋势,但辐射诱发的SET脉冲个数呈先增加再减少规律。此外,实验结果表明,在不同激光能量、LET值下,PMOS管栅长尺寸影响反相器链SET脉冲的特征不同。当激光能量、LET值较低时,PMOS管栅长尺寸大的电路产生的SET脉宽较大,而当激光能量、LET值较大时,PMOS管栅长尺寸小的电路反而产生更宽的SET脉冲。分析表明,较高激光能量、LET辐照时,寄生双极放大效应被触发可能是导致PMOS管栅长尺寸影响电路SET特征差异的主要原因。      

0.13μm部分耗尽SOI工艺反相器链SET脉宽传播

基于0.13 μm部分耗尽绝缘体上硅（PD-SOI）工艺,设计了一款片上反相器链（DFF）单粒子瞬态（SET）脉宽测试电路并流片实现,SET脉宽测试范围为105~3 150 ps,精度为±52.5 ps。利用重离子加速器和脉冲激光模拟单粒子效应试验装置对器件进行了SET脉宽试验。采用线性能量传输（LET值）为37.6 MeV·cm2/mg的86Kr离子触发了反相器链的三级脉宽传播,利用脉冲激光正面测试器件触发了相同级数的脉宽,同时,激光能量值为5 500 pJ时触发了反相器链的双极放大效应,脉宽展宽32.4%。通过对比激光与重离子的试验结果,以及明确激光到达有源区的有效能量的影响因子,建立了激光有效能量与重离子LET值的对应关系,分析了两者对应关系偏差的原因。研究结果可为其他种类芯片单粒子效应试验建立激光有效能量与重离子LET值的对应关系提供参考。      

半导体器件单粒子效应的机理,试验和预计

介绍了空间高能粒子环境及单粒子效应的机理、模拟试验方法和错误率计算方法。空间高能粒子环境由银河宇宙射线、太阳宇宙射线及地磁捕获粒子组成。单个高能粒子可在半导体中通过库仑作用或核反应电离出大量电子—空穴对,从而引起半导体器件逻辑紊乱或失效。用加速器产生的高能粒子进行模拟试验可获得器件对单粒子效应的敏感参数;由E.L.Peterson 等人的经验公式或CREME 程序预计器件在特定环境下的出错率。     

Radiation measured during ISS-Expedition 13 with different dosimeters

Radiation in low Earth orbit (LEO) is mainly composed of galactic cosmic rays (GCR), solar energetic particles and particles in SAA (South Atlantic Anomaly). The biological impact of space radiation to astronauts depends strongly on the particles’ linear energy transfer (LET) and is dominated by high LET radiation. It is important to measure the LET spectrum for the space radiation field and to investigate the influence of radiation on astronauts. At present, the preferred active dosimeters sensitive to all LET are the tissue equivalent proportional counter (TEPC) and the silicon detectors in various configurations; the preferred passive dosimeters are CR-39 plastic nuclear track detectors (PNTDs) sensitive to high LET and thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLDs) as well as optically stimulated luminescence dosimeters (OSLDs) sensitive to low LET. The TEPC, CR-39 PNTDs, TLDs and OSLDs were used to investigate the radiation field for the ISS mission Expedition 13 (ISS-12S) in LEO. LET spectra and radiation quantities (fluence, absorbed dose, dose equivalent and quality factor) were measured for the space mission with different dosimeters. This paper introduces the role of high LET radiation in radiobiology, the operational principles for the different dosimeters, the LET spectrum method using CR-39 detectors, the method to combine the results measured with TLDs/OSLDs and CR-39 PNTDs, and presents the LET spectra and the radiation quantities measured and combined.     

运算放大器SET效应的试验研究

模拟器件的单粒子瞬态脉冲效应的研究, 成为近来国际上单粒子效应研究的热点. 针对中国生产的运算放大器SF3503, 利用脉冲激光单粒子效应测试装置, 试验研究了SF3503工作于反相放大器与电压比较器模式SET效应的特征与规律. 获取了器件的敏感节点分布、LET阈值和SET脉冲波形的特征参数, 其中器件的敏感节点均分布在输入级与放大级, LET阈值不大于1.2 MeV•cm2•mg-1, 电压比较器产生的最大SET脉冲的幅度达27 V、脉冲宽度为51μs. 试验表明SF3503对SET效应极其敏感, 在不采取任何措施的情况下, 在空间任务中直接使用, 会严重影响系统的可靠性.      

HZE-dosimetry on MIR92, IML-1 and D-2

Nuclear track detectors were used to measure the integral Linear Energy Transfer (LET) spectra above 1 GeV per cm water behind the complex material shielding inside a spacecraft. The measurements are compared with predictions of the contribution of high charge, high energy HZE particles of the galactic cosmic radiation taking into account the influence of solar and geomagnetic modulation and shielding by matter.     

Charged-particle mutagenesis II. Mutagenic effects of high energy charged particles in normal human fibroblasts.

The biological effects of high LET charged particles are a subject of great concern with regard to the prediction of radiation risk in space. In this report, mutagenic effects of high LET charged particles are quantitatively measured using primary cultures of human skin fibroblasts, and the spectrum of induced mutations are analyzed. The LET of the charged particles ranged from 25 KeV/micrometer to 975 KeV/micrometer with particle energy (on the cells) between 94-603 MeV/u. The X-chromosome linked hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyl transferase (hprt) locus was used as the target gene. Exposure to these high LET charged particles resulted in exponential survival curves; whereas, mutation induction was fitted by a linear model. The Relative Biological Effect (RBE) for cell-killing ranged from 3.73 to 1.25, while that for mutant induction ranged from 5.74 to 0.48. Maximum RBE values were obtained at the LET of 150 keV/micrometer. The inactivation cross-section (alpha i) and the action cross-section for mutant induction (alpha m) ranged from 2.2 to 92.0 micrometer2 and 0.09 to 5.56 x 10(-3) micrometer2, respectively. The maximum values were obtained by 56Fe with an LET of 200 keV/micrometer. The mutagenicity (alpha m/alpha i) ranged from 2.05 to 7.99 x 10(-5) with the maximum value at 150 keV/micrometer. Furthermore, molecular analysis of mutants induced by charged particles indicates that higher LET beams are more likely to cause larger deletions in the hprt locus.     

Cellular and subcellular effect of heavy ions: a comparison of the induction of strand breaks and chromosomal aberration with the incidence of inactivation and mutation.

Radiobiological effects of heavy charged particles are compared for a large variety of ions from Helium to Uranium and energies between 1 and 1000 MeV/u which correspond to LET values between 10 and 16000 keV/micrometers. The different cross section for the induction of strand breaks and chromosomal aberrations as well as for inactivation and mutation induction exhibit striking similarities when compared as function of the linear energy transfer (LET). At LET values below 100 keV/micrometers all data points of one specific effect form one single curve as a function of LET, independent of the atomic number of the ion. In this LET range, the biological effects are independ from the particle energy or track structure and depend only on the energy transfer. Therefore, LET is a good parameter in this regime. For LET values greater than 100 keV/micrometers, the curves for the different ions separate from the common curve in order of increasing atomic numbers. In this regime LET is no longer a good parameter and the physical parameters of the formation of particle tracks are important. The similarity of the sigma-LET curves for different endpoints indicates that the 'hook-structure' is produced by physical and chemical effects which occur before the biologically relevant lesions are formed. However, from the existing data of biological effects, it can be concluded that the efficiencies for cell killing are always smaller than those extrapolated from X-ray data on the basis of the energy deposition only. Therefore, cells which are directly hit by an HZE particle are not killed and undergo a finite risk of mutation and transformation.     

Comparison of measured cosmic ray LET spectra with models and predictions.

Radiation effects of cosmic ray nuclei are generally described as a function of the particle LET. For a large number of space missions LET spectra have been measured and models have been developed to calculate these spectra that include the effects of geomagnetic shielding and shielding provided by material. In this paper we compare measured and calculated LET spectra. For low earth orbits events with high local energy deposition, i.e., short range secondaries, contribute significantly to the measured spectra. These events are produced by nuclear interactions, mainly induced by protons from the south atlantic anomaly. The technique to include these contributions in the models depends on the size of radiation sensitive volumes. For sizes comparable to or larger than the range of target secondaries it is essential to separate contributions by target interactions from those of cosmic rays. This separation is possible in experiments which use stacks of plastic nuclear track detectors. The yield of short range events generated by protons and measured in the detector can be calibrated from accelerator experimental data. We present first results for CR-39 detectors.     

HZE effects on mammalian cells.

In track segment experiments cell survival and chromosome aberrations of mammalian cells have been measured for various heavy ion beams between helium and uranium in the energy range between 0.5 and 960 MeV/u, corresponding to a velocity range of 0.03 to 0.87 C, and an LET spectrum from 10 to 15 000 keV/micrometers. At low LET, the cross section (sigma) for cell killing increases with increasing LET and shows a common curve for all ions regardless of the atomic number. This indicates that in this region the track structure of the different ions is of only a minor influence, and it is rather the total energy transfer, which is important for cell killing. At higher LET values, deviations from a common sigma-LET curve can be observed which indicate a saturation effect. The saturation of the lighter ions occurs at lower LET values than for the heavier ions. These findings are also confirmed by the chromosome data, where the efficiency for the induction of chromosomal aberrations for high LET particles depends on the track structure and is nearly independent of LET. In the heavier beams (Z > or = 10) individual particles cause multiple chromosome breaks in mitotic cells.     

Repair of DNA double-strand breaks and cell killing by charged particles.

It has been suggested that it is not simple double-strand breaks (dsb) but the non-reparable breaks which correlate well with the high biological effectiveness of high LET radiations for cell killing (Kelland et al., 1988; Radford, 1986). We have compared the effects of charged particles on cell death in 3 pairs of cell lines which are normal or defective in the repair of DNA dsbs. For the cell lines SL3-147, M10, and SX10 which are deficient in DNA dsb repair, RBE values were close to unity for cell killing induced by charged particles with linear energy transfer (LET) up to 200 keV/micrometer and were even smaller than unity for the LET region greater than 300 keV/micrometer. The inactivation cross section (ICS) increased with LET for all 3 pairs. The ICS of dsb repair deficient mutants was always larger than that of their parents for all the LET ranges, but with increasing LET the difference in ICS between the mutant and its parent became smaller. Since a small difference in ICS remained at LET of about 300 keV/micrometer, dsb repair may still take place at this high LET, even if its role is apparently small. These results suggest that the DNA repair system does not play a major role in protection against the attack of high LET radiations and that a main muse of cell death is non-reparable dsb which are produced at a higher yield compared with low LET radiations. No correlation was observed between DNA content or nuclear area and ICS.     

DNA double strand break production and rejoining in V79 cells irradiated with light ions.

Low energy protons and other densely ionizing light ions are known to have RBE>1 for cellular end points relevant for stochastic and deterministic effects. The occurrence of a close relationship between them and induction of DNA dsb is still a matter of debate. We studied the production of DNA dsb in V79 cells irradiated with low energy protons having LET values ranging from 11 to 31 keV/micrometer, i.e. in the energy range characteristic of the Bragg peak, using the sedimentation technique. We found that the initial yield of dsb is quite insensitive to proton LET and not significantly higher than that observed with X-rays, in agreement with recent data on V79 cells irradiated with alpha particles of various LET up to 120 keV/micrometer. By contrast, RBE for cell inactivation and for mutation induction rises with the proton LET. In experiments aimed at evaluating the rejoining of dsb after proton irradiation we found that the amount of dsb left unrepaired after 120 min incubation is higher for protons than for sparsely ionizing radiation. These results indicate that dsb are not homogeneous with respect to repair and give support to the hypothesis that increasing LET leads to an increase in the complexity of DNA lesions with a consequent decrease in their repairability.