We present basic information on different types of radiation effects, including total ionizing dose, displacement damage, and single-event effects. The content is designed to educate space weather professionals, space operations professionals, and other science and engineering stakeholders

Pellish, Jonathan A.

NASA Technical Reports Server

Radiation 101: Effects on Hardware 
and Robotic Systems
Jonathan A. Pellish
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD USA
September 2015
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
www.nasa.gov 
This work was sponsored in part by the NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) program.
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20150020839 2019-08-31T05:36:38+00:00Z
Objectives
• Increase knowledge of radiation effects amongst 
o Space weather professionals,
o Space operations community, and
o Other science and engineering stakeholders.
• Provide overview of
o Total ionizing dose (TID),
o Displacement damage (DD) / non-ionizing energy loss 
(NIEL), and
o Single-event effects (SEE).
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 2
Stop me any time to ask questions
A little history…
• Much of our community’s history is captured in 
the evolution of the Nuclear and Space Radiation 
Effects Conference (NSREC), now an Institute of 
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 
meeting run by the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences 
Society.
o First meetings were 1962/63, but still part of AIEE and 
IRE/AIEE. 1964 was first official IEEE NSREC.
o In the beginning, lots of involvement from the nuclear 
weapons effects community in addition to the civil and 
military space communities.
o Just celebrated our 50th anniversary.
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 3
E. E. Conrad, "Reflections on 47+ Years of NSREC," presented at the IEEE 
Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conf., Denver, CO, Jul. 2010.
A little more history…
• Radiation community started during the Cold War
• Sputnik, 4 Oct 1957
• Van Allen Belts, Jan & Mar 1958 (Explorer I and III)
o Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, AL
• Space Race started; Space Act signed into law by 
President Eisenhower on 29 Jul 1958
• President Kennedy was in office
o “Going to the Moon Speech,” 25 May 1961 / 12 Sep 1962
• STARFISH PRIME (Ops. Fishbowl / Dominic), 9 Jul 
1962
• Limited Test Ban Treaty, 5 Aug 1963
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 4
E. E. Conrad, "Reflections on 47+ Years of NSREC," presented at the IEEE 
Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conf., Denver, CO, Jul. 2010.
What are radiation effects?
• Energy deposition rate in a “box”
• Source of energy and how it’s absorbed control the 
observed effects
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 5
What makes radiation effects so 
challenging?
• Field is still evolving because of the technologies 
we want to use in space systems
• A problem of dynamic range
o Length: 1016 m  10-15 m (1 light year, 1 fm)
» 1031
o Energy: 1019 eV  1 eV (extreme energy cosmic rays, 
silicon band gap)
» 1019
o That’s just two dimensions; there are others.
» Radiation sources, electronic technologies, etc.
• Variability and knowledge of the environment
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 6
Radiation sources
• Primary
o Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs),
o Solar protons and heavy ions, and
o Trapped particles in planetary magnetospheres.
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 7
Image credit: Solar Dynamics Observatory/NASA
http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/main/item/520; http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/main/item/622
What is a rad?
• 1 rad = 100 erg/g = 0.01 J/kg; 100 rad = 1 Gy
o Always specified for a particular material
o 1 rad(SiO2), 10 krad(Si), 100 Gy(H2O)
• This is absorbed dose, not exposure (R), or dose 
equivalent (Sv)
• Missions have a wide range of absorbed dose 
requirements, driven in large part by persistent 
environment components
o Trapped particles, solar protons, etc.
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 8
What is total ionizing dose?
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/.
9
• Total ionizing dose (TID) is the absorbed dose in 
a given material resulting from the energy 
deposition of ionizing radiation.
• Total ionizing dose results in cumulative 
parametric degradation that can lead to functional 
failure.  This is analogous to wear out.
• In space, caused mainly by protons and electrons.
Metal Oxide Semiconductors Devices Bipolar Devices
Threshold voltage shifts Excess base current
Increased off-state leakage Changes to recombination behavior
Examples
Total ionizing dose
• Caused by the energy deposition of protons, electrons, energetic 
heavy ions, and photon-material interactions – focused on insulators
• Holes build up in deep traps and interface traps, which are manifest 
as electrical changes in device performance
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/.
10
H. Schmidt, et al., IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 2009.
M. R. Shaneyfelt, et al., IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 2000.
IB+ vs. Total Dose for LM111 Voltage ComparatorsSamsung 8 Gbit Single-Level Cell NAND Flash
What is NIEL?
• Most always applies to protons and electrons.
• Vast majority of incident kinetic energy lost to ionization, 
creating TID and single-event effects.
• A small portion of energy lost in non-ionizing processes 
causes atoms to be removed from their lattice sites and 
form permanent electrically active defects (i.e., 
displacement damage) in semiconductor materials.
• NIEL (non-ionizing energy loss) is that part of the energy 
introduced via both Coulomb (elastic), nuclear elastic, and 
nuclear inelastic interactions, which produces the initial 
vacancy-interstitial pairs and phonons (e.g., vibrational 
energy).
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 11
What is NIEL?
• Non-ionizing energy causes cumulative damage, 
much like TID
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 12
C. J. Marshall, IEEE NSREC Short Course, 2009.
Silicon Material System
C. Poivey & G. Hopkinson, “Displacement Damage Mechanism and 
Effects,” Space Radiation and its Effect on EEE Components, EPFL 
Training Course, 2009.
NSREC: Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference
What is displacement damage?
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/.
13
• Displacement damage dose (DDD) is the non-
ionizing energy loss (NIEL) in a given material 
resulting from a portion of energy deposition by 
impinging radiation.
• DDD is cumulative parametric degradation that 
can lead to functional failure. This is analogous to 
wear out.
• In space, caused mainly by protons and electrons.
DDD Effects
Degraded minority carrier lifetime (e.g., gain reductions, effects in LEDs and 
optical sensors, etc.)
Changes to mobility and carrier concentrations
Displacement damage, visually
• Pictorial relating the initial defect configuration to the primary knock-on atom 
(PKA) energy in Si material.
• For recoil energies above a couple of keV, the overall damage structure is 
relatively unchanged due to the formation of cascades and sub-cascades.
• Which defects are electrically active?  Synergy with TID & SEE…
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 14
Device-Level Effects Dark Spikes and CTI damage - 1.8x1010 10 MeV protons/cm2
A. Johnston, IEEE NSREC Short Course, 2000.
C. Poivey & G. Hopkinson, “Displacement Damage Mechanism and 
Effects,” Space Radiation and its Effect on EEE Components, EPFL 
Training Course, 2009.
What is linear energy transfer (LET)?
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 15
dx
dE
dx
dES
ρ
1LET  −=⇒−=
GEO LET Spectrum behind 2.5 mm of Aluminum
Generated with CREME96
Stopping power (S), depends on target material; LET does not
Iron in Silicon
Generated with SRIM-2008
What are single-event effects?
• A single-event effect (SEE) is a disturbance to the 
normal operation of a circuit caused by the 
passage of a single ion (proton or heavy ion)
through or near a sensitive node in a circuit.
• SEEs can be either destructive or non-destructive.
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/.
16
Non-Destructive Destructive
Single-Event Upset (SEU) Single-Event Latchup (SEL)
Multiple-Bit Upset (MBU) Single-Event Burnout (SEB)
Single-Event Transient (SET)
Single-Event Gate Rupture (SEGR)
Single-Event Functional Interrupt (SEFI)
After S. Buchner, SERESSA 2011 Course, Toulouse, France.
Examples
Proton SEE notes
• Proton LET is very low (<< 1 MeV-cm2/mg)
o Upsets are usually dominated by indirect ionization –
nuclear reactions
o Reaction products have appreciable LETs, usually less 
than 15 MeV-cm2/mg, but short ranges compared to 
GCRs
o Since 2007, low-energy proton SEE have become 
relevant
• Importance of proton SEE
o In proton-dominated environments, can be a large 
portion of the overall SEE rate – LEO, for instance
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 17
Single-event effects processes
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/.
18
R. Baumann, IEEE NSREC Short Course, 2005.
1
3
2
2
Single-event effects - latchup
• Events are likely due to proton indirect ionization 
and/or cosmic rays
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 19
Location of CY7C1069 SRAM latch-ups recorded by the CARMEN-2 experiment on JASON-2
R. Ecoffet, IEEE NSREC Short Course, 2011.
Single-event effects – sensor corruption
• Transient imager corruption due to solar particle 
event ions striking the device
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 20
Solar Particle Event Tracks on SOHO LASCO Instrument
The SOHO/LASCO data used here are produced by a consortium of the Naval Research Laboratory (USA), Max-Planck-Institut fuer
Aeronomie (Germany), Laboratoire d'Astronomie (France), and the University of Birmingham (UK). SOHO is a project of international 
cooperation between ESA and NASA.
R. Ecoffet, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 2013.
Short history of single-event effects
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/.
21
• The possibility of single event upsets was first postulated in 1962 by 
Wallmark and Marcus. J.T. Wallmark, S.M. Marcus, "Minimum size and maximum packaging 
density of non-redundant semiconductor devices," Proc. IRE, vol. 50, pp. 286-298, March 1962.
• The first actual satellite anomalies were reported in 1975. SEUs in flip-
flops.  D. Binder, E.C. Smith, A.B. Holman, "Satellite anomalies from galactic cosmic rays," IEEE Trans. 
on Nuclear Science, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 2675-2680, Dec. 1975.
• First observation of SEUs on earth was in 1978. Observed in RAM 
caused by the alpha particles released by U and Th contaminants within 
the chip packaging material and solder. Vendors took specific actions to 
reduce it.  T. C. May and M. H. Woods, "A New Physical Mechanism for Soft Errors in Dynamic 
Memories”, Proceedings 16 Int'l Reliability Physics Symposium, p. 33, April, 1978.
• First report of SEUs due to cosmic rays on earth in 1979. J. F. Ziegler and
W. A. Lanford, "Effect of Cosmic Rays on Computer Memories", Science, 206, 776 (1979).
• First report of destructive SEE (proton induced latch-up) in a memory 
operating in space in 1992 L. Adams et al., “A Verified Proton Induced Latch-up in Space,” 
IEEE TNS vol. 39, No. 6, pp. 1804 – 1808, Dec. 1992.
After S. Buchner, SERESSA 2011 Course, Toulouse, France.
Summary
• Radiation affects electronic, optical, optoelectronic, 
and material systems deployed into the space 
environment
• Performance impacts can be manifest as cumulative 
degradation (e.g., TID and DD) or transient effects 
(e.g., SEE)
• Mitigation is possible and requires a multifaceted, 
systematic approach
• Trading between cost, schedule, and technology will 
define the level of risk for the mission
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/. 22
Always remember your MEAL
Mission, Environment, Application, and Lifetime
Acronyms
23
To be published on the web at https://nepp.nasa.gov/.
Acronym Definition
AIEE American Institute of Electrical Engineers
DD Displacement Damage
ELDRS Enhanced Low Dose Rate Sensitivity
GCR Galactic Cosmic Ray
GEO Geostationary Orbit
IRE Institute of Radio Engineers
LASCO Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment
LEO Low Earth Orbit
LET Linear Energy Transfer
MBU Multiple Bit Upset
MEAL Mission, Environment, Application, and Lifetime
NEPP NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging program
NESC NASA Engineering & Safety Center
NIEL Non-Ionizing Energy Loss
NSREC Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference
PKA Primary Knock-on Atom
RAM Random Access Memory
SAA South Atlantic Anomaly
SEB Single-Event Burnout
SEE Single-Event Effects
SEFI Single-Event Functional Interrupt
SEGR Single-Event Gate Rupture
SEL Single-Event Latchup
SET Single-Event Transient
SEU Single-Event Upset
SOHO Solar & Heliospheric Observatory
SRAM Static Random Access Memory
TID Total Ionizing Dose


Radiation 101: Effects on Hardware and Robotic Systems

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