Integrated Circuit Design for Radiation Environments

2 Radiation Environments

2.1 Introduction

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the various radiation environments that may be encountered by electronic systems and components. In the first part of the chapter, some basic sources of radiation are reviewed, including atomic and nuclear processes such as radioactive decay. Sections 2.2 and 2.3 provide a good physics background for the deeper dive into fundamental radiation effects discussed in Chapters 3 and 4. We then discuss the three predominant natural sources of radiation in the space environment and the man‐made environments found in commercial nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons scenarios, and high‐energy physics facilities.

2.2 X‐Rays, Gamma Rays, and the Atom

As a first step in understanding actual radiation environments, we examine some of the physical processes that give rise to radiation. These include atomic as well as nuclear scale events like radioactive decay. An obvious prerequisite for the following discussion is a good working knowledge of the atomic shell structure and the quantum mechanics behind this structure. The introduction provided in Chapter 1 as well as the problems at the end of Chapter 1 are good starting points for this knowledge.

2.2.1 X‐Rays

The discovery of X‐rays, attributed to Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895, came after numerous researchers noted odd effects while experimenting with cathode ray tubes. Crookes and Hitton noted fogging of photographic plates near their cathode ray ...