Operating in the space environment presents a multitude of challenges. Among them are the intense radiation outside of Earth's atmosphere, and high-energy particles causing "Single Event Effects" or SEEs with electronics, both of which can lead to anything from minor glitches to catastrophic failures.

Addressing SEEs is vital to ensuring the reliability of spacecraft and satellites, but current testing methods face limitations due to high costs, logistical complexity and limited facility availability. To overcome these obstacles, The Aerospace Corporation was recently part of a team awarded two contracts from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to continue its work developing innovative alternatives to traditional SEEs testing.

As a subcontractor, Aerospace's work is to create more efficient, scalable and accessible testing facilities to meet the increasing demand for space-related radiation testing. If successful, these advancements could significantly enhance the pace and reliability of US space technology development.

Currently, SEEs testing involves taking parts to a cyclotron accelerator facility and exposing them to heavy ion radiation — expensive and logistically complicated. The DARPA program aims to develop alternative testing methods which are more scalable and modular, but can still emulate a high-energy particle strike that a part may experience in space.

The two DARPA contracts that Aerospace is involved with are pursuing two different alternative sources: pulsed x-rays and pulsed electrons. The goal is to not only create new places for testing, but also methods that are more easily replicated and can open up the constrained path for testing. Fortunately, Aerospace has been investigating this for years, which DARPA's support will extend and expand.

“This work dates to before 2015, as part of an Aerospace internal research and development effort where the team built a demonstration for X-ray single event testing,” said Arielle Little, a research scientist leading Aerospace’s efforts in X-ray SEEs testing. “This is a great example of Aerospace’s longstanding internal research efforts morphing into something that DARPA is very interested in.”

Aerospace is pursuing two methods:  Pulsed Inverse-Compton X-ray Source for Electronics Testing (PIXEL), and Pulsed Electrons for Alternative Radiation effects and Characterization in Electronics (PEARCE). PIXEL generates tightly focused pulsed x-rays which mimic the effects of heavy ion testing, but with more precise control of the beam location and energy at less cost, while PEARCE uses a pulsed, focused electron cloud to deposit energy on the tested material.

While both methods are innovative and pushing limits in the radiation effects field, their most significant impact is the ability to be deployed in a small area while remaining less costly than traditional heavy ion testing facilities. If successful, PEARCE and PIXEL technologies can be used in-house at various types of facilities across the US, increasing access to radiation testing. With less waiting time, parts and prototypes can be tested faster, ultimately decreasing the time to test for up-and-coming technologies.