Optoelectronic developments for remote-handled maintenance tasks in ITER

Remotely handled maintenance tools operated in the future International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will face a harsh radiation environment, with total dose level requirements of several MGy. Optical fiber data communication has been considered as an alternative to conventional electronic transmission between the control room and remote handled maintenance equipment, mainly owing to its insentivity to electro-magnetic interference and to its wavelength encoded multiplexing capabilities. In this paper we summarise main results obtained at SCK•CEN over the past years towards the development of radiation tolerant fibre-optic communication links and report on the radiation tolerance of various individual optical components such as optical fibres, laser diodes and photodetectors, as well as their associated electronic driver circuits

Radiation Hardening of Digital Color CMOS Camera-on-a-Chip Building Blocks for Multi-MGy Total Ionizing Dose Environments

The Total Ionizing Dose (TID) hardness of digital color Camera-on-a-Chip (CoC) building blocks is explored in the Multi-MGy range using 60Co gamma-ray irradiations. The performances of the following CoC subcomponents are studied: radiation hardened (RH) pixel and photodiode designs, RH readout chain, Color Filter Arrays (CFA) and column RH Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC). Several radiation hardness improvements are reported (on the readout chain and on dark current). CFAs and ADCs degradations appear to be very weak at the maximum TID of 6 MGy(SiO2), 600 Mrad. In the end, this study demonstrates the feasibility of a MGy rad-hard CMOS color digital camera-on-a-chip, illustrated by a color image captured after 6 MGy(SiO2) with no obvious degradation. An original dark current reduction mechanism in irradiated CMOS Image Sensors is also reported and discussed

Phosphorus Versus Arsenic: Role of the Photodiode Doping Element in CMOS Image Sensor Radiation-Induced Dark Current and Random Telegraph Signal

This work the role of the phosphorus doping element in the radiation-induced dark current in a CMOS image sensor (CIS) photodiode. The neutron and proton irradiations on shallow arsenic-based photodiode CISs and deep phosphorus-based photodiodes CISs have been performed. The results highlight the applicability of the same dark current increase and random telegraph signal (RTS) models. Already verified on other photodiode structures, these results further extend the universality of these analytic tools. Moreover, it emphasizes that the phosphorus element does not play a significant role either in the radiation-induced dark current increase or in the dark current RTS. The results on RTS after annealing reveal the same recovery dynamic than those already observed in irradiated image sensors, suggesting that the phosphorus element does not play a significant role after annealing. Therefore, this work is a piece of experimental evidence supporting the idea that RTS induced by displacement damage is principally due to defect clusters mainly constituted of intrinsic silicon defects such as clusters of vacancies and interstitials

Multi-MGy total ionizing dose induced MOSFET variability effects on radiation hardened CMOS image sensor performances

MOSFETs variability in irradiated CIS up to 10 MGy (SiO2) is statistically investigated on about 65000 devices. Different variability sources are identified and the role played by the transistors composing the readout chain is clarified

Radiation Hardening of Digital Color CMOS Camera-on-a-Chip Building Blocks for Grad Total Ionizing Dose Environments

Radiation Hardening of Digital Color CMOS Camera-on-a-Chip Building Blocks for Grad Total Ionizing Dose Environments

Vulnerability and Hardening Studies of Optical and Illumination Systems at MGy Dose Levels

In the framework of the fusion for energy radiation hard imaging system project, the main radiation effects affecting the image quality of a miniaturized complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-based camera exposed to radiation doses up to 1 MGy(SiO 2 ) are investigated for ITER applications. The radiation effects related to two of the three subcomponents of the camera are investigated: the optical system (OS) and the illumination system (IS). Subsystem demonstrators have been manufactured selecting radiation tolerant or hardened materials and components to demonstrate the feasibility to withstand such high dose levels while fulfilling the ITER remote handling needs in terms of optical performances and miniaturization. Regarding the OS, the observed degradation of the radiation-hardened optical glasses used for the OS lenses is characterized in terms of both radiation-induced attenuation and radiation-induced refractive-index change. At the system level, impact of these phenomena on the OS demonstrator performances is discussed in terms of image contrast. Radiation test results highlight the high radiation tolerance of manufactured monochrome and color OS to both degradation mechanisms. Regarding the IS, the selected architecture consists in a ring of 20 commercially available light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with monochrome (amber) or white emissions. An appropriate choice for the LEDs allows designing an IS with the requested performances and slight degradation of its output power at the MGy dose levels. From the obtained results, developing miniaturized IS and OS subcomponents for MGy dose operation levels appears realistic using commercially available technologies and appropriate hardening procedures

MODELISATION DE SYSTEMES D'ACQUISITION ET DE TRANSMISSION A FIBRES OPTIQUES DESTINES A FONCTIONNER EN ENVIRONNEMENT NUCLAIRE

ORSAY-PARIS 11-BU Sciences (914712101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Ab Initio Modelling of Volatile Fission Products in Uranium Mononitride

Defects and the incorporation of volatile fission products (xenon, krypton, caesium and iodine) in uranium mononitride are investigated using DFT calculations. Various locations for impurities are considered including at a tetrahedral interstitial position, substitution of a host nitrogen or uranium ion and placed in a Schottky defect (UN bivacancy). The incorporation is energetically more favourable for the latter, although the incorporation energies are positive. The preferred position for volatile fission products in UN is at the larger of the vacancies, either a single uranium vacancy or the uranium vacancy of a Schottky defect. The incorporation of a fission product in a bound [100]-Schottky defect leads to a tetragonal distortion of the supercell. The impurities considered in this work produce very small perturbations of the crystalline matrix of UN. With the exception of impurities at the interstitial site, which perturb the structure into the second coordination sphere, only the displacement of the atoms at the nearest-neighbour positions is significant. Analysis of the charge distribution after incorporation of the fission product reveals a weak charge transfer for the noble gases, while a larger transfer is displayed for caesium and iodine.JRC.E.3-Materials researc

17 bit 4.35mW 1kHz Sigma delta ADC and 256-to-1 multiplexer for remote handling instrumentation equipment

A radiation tolerant Delta-Sigma Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) and multiplexer is presented. The design features a 1.5 V, 17 bit ADC consuming 4.35 mW at a sample frequency of 1 MHz. The ADC features a bandwidth of 1 kHz and utilizes a Correlated Double Sampling technique (CDS) to remove offset and 1/f noise. The circuit maintains its 17 bit resolution upon a simulated radiation dose exceeding 1 MGy and varying temperatures between 0 °C and 85 °C. Next a multiplexer is presented. It can multiplex 256 channels at a clock frequency of 128 MHz or has a data throughput of 256 MSample/s. In addition the bit period of the multiplexer varies less then 1.5% due to the influence of temperature or radiation, which proves the temperature and radiation tolerance.status: publishe

Reliability issues for optical fibre technology in nuclear applications

The deployment of optical fibre networks for communication and monitoring in nuclear environments, including nuclear power plants, future thermonuclear power reactor buildings and even spacecrafts is a very particular issue. A major reliability problem when dealing with photonics in these environments is the presence of nuclear radiation fields. It is well known that electronic or photonic components may suffer from exposure to high-energy radiation. Any resulting system malfunctions might have dramatic consequences on safety and cost and it is therefore essential to investigate the reliability of optical communication devices exposed to radiation. In this paper, we try to summarize the degradation mechanisms of state-of-the-art fibre optic components. We illustrate these findings with recent results obtained on commercially available optical fibre components.SCOPUS: cp.pinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe