Operating in the space environment presents a multitude of challenges, including intense radiation that can disrupt or damage critical electronic systems. Among these challenges are single-event effects (SEEs) which occur when high-energy particles interact with electronics. These interactions have the potential to cause anything from minor glitches to catastrophic failures, posing a risk for spacecraft and electronic systems exposed to the harsh space environment.
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 aims to create more efficient, scalable and accessible testing facilities to meet the increasing demand for radiation testing in the rapidly expanding space domain. If successful, these advancements could significantly enhance the pace and reliability of US space technology development.
As of now the gold standard for SEEs testing involves taking parts to a cyclotron accelerator facility and exposing them to heavy ion radiation—heavy ion testing—which is an expensive logistical challenge. Access to heavy ion beams, or ‘beam time’, is constrained due to the lack of facilities, which require a large area that is expensive to manage. With only a handful of facilities in the country that can perform heavy ion testing for space, the DARPA program aims to support the development of viable alternative SEEs testing methods which are more scalable and modular than heavy ions 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.
Advancing Aerospace’s History in SEEs Testing
Aerospace has been investigating alternative methods in SEEs testing for some time, but with this recent support, Aerospace now has the opportunity to expand on these lines of research.
“Aerospace has a history of pioneering high-energy pulsed X-rays for radiation testing. 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. This work was pioneered by Steve LaLumondiere with the help of beamline scientists and the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory,” 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.”
DARPA is now funding a natural continuation the pulsed X-ray technique; the Pulsed Inverse-Compton X-ray Source for Electronics Testing (PIXEL) project, explores a room-sized pulsed x-ray source based on inverse Compton scattering. If successful, the source 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. The effort is produced in partnership with RadiaBeam and the Stanford linear accelerator (SLAC).
The other method is called Pulsed Electrons for Alternative Radiation effects and Characterization in Electronics (PEARCE) and if successful, it will use a pulsed, focused electron cloud to deposit energy on the tested material. This method relies on the ability of electrons to be highly penetrative while simultaneously depositing energy in a similar manner to heavy ion testing. The project is a collaboration with many contributors, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), RadiaBeam and Tau Systems.
A Twofold Impact
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.
“If both projects are successful, they would enable the rapid insertion of new technologies, from thought to actual launch,” said George Tzintzarov, a research engineer leading Aerospace’s efforts for PEARCE. “With that timeline decreased, this allows the US to have more capabilities in space while reducing the risk of part failure due to radiation.”
As the PEARCE and PIXEL teams continue to develop their alternatives, the space domain continues its rapid expansion, demanding faster, novel technology to advance US space capabilities. These collaborative efforts are leaning on Aerospace’s deep technical expertise to solve the hardest problems in space.
“There's only a few of this type of X-ray sources in the world, and there’s still a big focus on trying to make them better,” said Little. “It's very exciting to be at the forefront of the development of this technology, which is applicable in the radiation testing world, but also for medical imaging, targeted cancer therapies and other functions outside of space.”