Fast Neutron Irradiation of a Multichannel JFET-Based Optical Encoder

Sweeney, Daniel C.; Reed, F. Kyle; Goetz, K. C.; Buchalter, Adam P.; Bull Ezell, N. Dianne

doi:10.1109/tns.2024.3398417

Fast Neutron Irradiation of a Multichannel JFET-Based Optical Encoder

Journal Article · Wed May 08 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/tns.2024.3398417· OSTI ID:2376372

^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Buchalter, Adam P. ^[2]; ^[1]

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)

Modern electrical components are susceptible to damage from high levels of radiation and extreme temperatures found near reactors in terrestrial nuclear power plants and in aerospace applications. Radiation-hardened electronics are being developed, largely for the aerospace industry, but they sometimes rely on application-specific, small-batch semiconductor fabrication processes. These processes tend to be prohibitively expensive to develop and maintain outside major industrial facilities or governmental agencies. Recently, commercially available, nonradiation-rated junction-gate field-effect transistors (JFETs) were shown to maintain their functionality at gamma doses exceeding 1 MGy, suggesting that nonrated, commercially available electrical components could be used to develop systems that are tolerant to ionizing radiation. However, gamma ray survival is not indicative of neutron dose survival, and few studies characterize JFETs under neutron irradiation. To address this knowledge gap, a JFET-based analog multiplexer and optical pulsewidth modulation (PWM) encoder was developed and irradiated using a ²⁵²Cf source to 1.6×10¹³ n/cm². The multiplexed optical encoder (MOE) system maintained functionality throughout testing and showed little evidence of radiation effects. These results indicate that circuitry tolerant to fast neutron damage can be developed using low-cost, nonradiation-rated, commercially available JFETs, which could provide a lower production cost alternative to specialized semiconductor processes when designing and building electronics better able to survive neutron irradiation.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; NE0008591

OSTI ID:: 2376372

Journal Information:: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 71; ISSN 0018-9499

Publisher:: IEEECopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (36)

The rad-hard readout system of the BaBar silicon vertex tracker Re, V.; DeWitt, J.; Dow, S. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 409, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(97)01298-9	journal	May 1998
Materials challenges in nuclear energy Zinkle, S. J.; Was, G. S. Acta Materialia, Vol. 61, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2012.11.004	journal	February 2013
High-dose temperature-dependent neutron irradiation effects on the optical transmission and dimensional stability of amorphous fused silica Petrie, Christian M.; Birri, Anthony; Blue, Thomas E. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, Vol. 525 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2019.119668	journal	December 2019
Enhanced backscatter and unsaturated blue wavelength shifts in F-doped fused silica optical fibers exposed to extreme neutron radiation damage Petrie, Christian M.; Sweeney, Daniel C. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, Vol. 615 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2023.122441	journal	September 2023
Irradiation embrittlement of reactor pressure vessel steel at very high neutron fluence Kryukov, A.; Debarberis, L.; von Estorff, U. Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 422, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2011.12.026	journal	March 2012
Design and fabrication of a 0.25μm Rad-Hard ASIC for ALICE ITS data acquisition system Falchieri, Davide; Gabrielli, Alessandro; Gandolfi, Enzo Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 514, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2003.08.090	journal	November 2003
Radiation effects in concrete for nuclear power plants – Part I: Quantification of radiation exposure and radiation effects Field, K. G.; Remec, I.; Pape, Y. Le Nuclear Engineering and Design, Vol. 282 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2014.10.003	journal	February 2015
Neutron-gamma flux and dose calculations in a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Brovchenko, Mariya; Dechenaux, Benjamin; Burn, Kenneth W. EPJ Web of Conferences, Vol. 153 https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201715305008	journal	January 2017
Neutron-gamma flux and dose calculations for feasibility study of DISCOMS instrumentation in case of severe accident in a GEN 3 reactor Brovchenko, Mariya; Duhamel, Isabelle; Dechenaux, Benjamin EPJ Web of Conferences, Vol. 153 https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201715307030	journal	January 2017
A 100-Mrad (Si) JFET-Based Sensing and Communications System for Extreme Nuclear Instrumentation Environments Reed, F. Kyle; Ericson, M. Nance; Ezell, N. Dianne Bull Nuclear Technology, Vol. 208, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2057776	journal	June 2022
Rad-hard vertical JFET switch for the HV-MUX system of the ATLAS upgrade Inner Tracker Fernández-Martínez, P.; Ullán, M.; Flores, D. Journal of Instrumentation, Vol. 11, Issue 01 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/11/01/C01043	journal	January 2016
Evaluation of radiation hardness of High-Voltage silicon vertical JFETs Giacomini, G.; Bomben, M.; Chen, W. Journal of Instrumentation, Vol. 15, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/15/11/T11001	journal	November 2020
48 V input rad-hard DCDC converters for HEP experiments: development and results Antoszczuk, P.; Michelis, S.; Ripamonti, G. Journal of Instrumentation, Vol. 17, Issue 01 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/17/01/C01068	journal	January 2022
Rad-hard RISC-V SoC and ASIP ecosystems studies for high-energy physics applications Andorno, M.; Andersen, M.; Borghello, G. Journal of Instrumentation, Vol. 18, Issue 01 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/18/01/C01018	journal	January 2023
High-speed DCFL circuits with very shallow junction GaAs JFETs Wada, M.; Okubora, A.; Takano, C. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 36, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1109/16.30946	journal	July 1989
Silicon carbide JFET radiation response McGarrity, J. M.; McLean, F. B.; DeLancey, W. M. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 39, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/23.211393	journal	December 1992
JFET monolithic preamplifier with outstanding noise behaviour and radiation hardness characteristics Radeka, V.; Rescia, S.; Manfredi, P. F. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 40, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1109/23.256654	journal	August 1993
Radiation effects on Si-JFET devices for front-end electronics Citterio, M.; Kierstead, J.; Rescia, S. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 43, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/23.507106	journal	June 1996
Radiation-resistant WDM optical link for thermonuclear fusion reactor instrumentation Fernandez, A. F.; Berghmans, F.; Brichard, B. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 48, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1109/23.960361	journal	October 2001
SiC JFET integrated circuits for sensing and control at temperatures up to 600°C Garverick, Steven L.; Soong, Chia-Wei; Mehregany, Mehran 2012 IEEE Energytech https://doi.org/10.1109/EnergyTech.2012.6304660	conference	May 2012
Biasing Techniques: Validation of 3 to 8 Decoder Modules Using 18nm FinFET Nodes Pittala, Chandra Shaker; Lavanya, M.; Saritha, M. 2021 2nd International Conference for Emerging Technology (INCET) https://doi.org/10.1109/INCET51464.2021.9456319	conference	May 2021
Calibration of Distributed Temperature Sensors Using Commercially Available SMF-28 Optical Fiber From 22 °C to 1000 °C Jones, Joshua T.; Sweeney, Daniel C.; Birri, Anthony IEEE Sensors Journal, Vol. 22, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1109/JSEN.2022.3146185	journal	March 2022
A JFET/bipolar eight-channel analog multiplexer Hamade, A. R.; Albarran, J. F. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 10, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/JSSC.1975.1050633	journal	December 1975
550 $^{\circ}\hbox{C}$ Integrated Logic Circuits using 6H-SiC JFETs Soong, Chia-Wei; Patil, Amita C.; Garverick, Steven L. IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. 33, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2012.2206792	journal	October 2012
Femtojoule high speed planar GaAs E-JFET logic Zuleeg, R.; Notthoff, J. K.; Lehovec, K. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 25, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/T-ED.1978.19147	journal	June 1978
Radiation Effects on Junction Field Effect Transistors Shedd, W.; Buchanan, B.; Dolan, R. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 16, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.1969.4325509	journal	January 1969
Aging of Electronics with Application to Nuclear Power Plant Instrumentation Johnson, R. T.; Thome, F. V.; Craft, C. M. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 31, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.1984.4333354	journal	January 1984
Toward the development of radiation-tolerant instrumentation data links for thermonuclear fusion experiments Fernandez Fernandez, A.; Berghmans, F.; Brichard, B. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 49, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2002.805980	journal	December 2002
Radiation degradation mechanisms in laser diodes Johnston, A. H.; Miyahira, T. F. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol. 51, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2004.839166	journal	December 2004
Signal Processing of Multiplexed Optical PWM Signals for Sensor Arrays in Nuclear Environments Sweeney, Daniel; Reed, F.; Goetz, K. C. 13th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control & Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2023) https://doi.org/10.13182/NPICHMIT23-40947	conference	January 2023
Normal Operating Radiation Levels in Pressurized Water Reactor Plants Sejvar, J. Nuclear Technology, Vol. 36, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A31957	journal	November 1977
A JFET-Based Radiation-Hardened Sensing and Communications Electronic System for Dry Cask Instrumentation Reed, F.; Ericson, M.; Ezell, N. Dianne 12th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2021) https://doi.org/10.13182/T124-34450	conference	January 2021
A Global Review of PWR Nuclear Power Plants Fernández-Arias, Pablo; Vergara, Diego; Orosa, José A. Applied Sciences, Vol. 10, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.3390/app10134434	journal	June 2020
Fiber Optic Sensors for Harsh and High Radiation Environments in Aerospace Applications Rovera, Alberto; Tancau, Alexandru; Boetti, Nadia Sensors, Vol. 23, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.3390/s23052512	journal	February 2023
Low Earth Orbit Space Environment Testing of Extreme Temperature 6H-SiC JFETs on the International Space Station Neudeck, Philip G.; Prokop, Norman F.; Greer III, Lawrence C. Materials Science Forum, Vol. 679-680 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.679-680.579	journal	March 2011
Year-long 500°C Operational Demonstration of Up-scaled 4H-SiC JFET Integrated Circuits Neudeck, Philip G.; Spry, David J.; Krasowski, Michael J. Journal of Microelectronics and Electronic Packaging, Vol. 15, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.4071/imaps.729648	journal	October 2018

Similar Records

A 100-Mrad (Si) JFET-based Sensing and Communications System for Extreme Nuclear Instrumentation Environments

Journal Article · Tue Jun 28 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Nuclear Technology · OSTI ID:1875365

A radiation-hardened accelerometer preamplifier for 2 x 10/sup 8/ rads (SI) total dose

Journal Article · Tue Nov 30 23:00:00 EST 1982 · IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.; (United States) · OSTI ID:5915936

Radiation effects on Si-JFET devices for front-end electronics

Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1996 · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science · OSTI ID:276442

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Analog electronics
junction-gate field-effect transistor (JFET)
neutron irradiation
optical fiber
radiation-hardened electronics

Fast Neutron Irradiation of a Multichannel JFET-Based Optical Encoder

Citation Formats

References (36)

Similar Records

Related Subjects