Several Research and Development activities are ongoing at European Space Agency [1] to secure the supply of key electronic parts for current and future space avionics systems. Analogously to astro-particle and high-energy physics, the space missions radiation environment drives the radiation hardness requirements, which limits availability of suitable electronic components. In particular for the future ESA flagship Jupiter science mission, the necessary processing, reliability, mass, power performance requirements are difficult to meet with current components and systems with sufficient radiation tolerance margins. Improved radiation characterisation and modelling of the Jupiter radiation environment as well as operational radiation monitoring during the mission will be key in ensuring adequate margins for the operation of electronic components.

No abstract

No abstract

1-μm-wide Dayem bridges were patterned with a pulsed Xe laser in c-axis-oriented YBaCuO films prepared according to the BaF2 method. The microbridges have a critical current density of 2×106 A/cm2 at 77 K, which is typical for an epitaxial film without grain boundaries. When microwave radiation in the centimeter wavelength range is applied, we observe current steps in the current-voltage characteristic up to 72 K. The dependence of these steps on microwave power is compared with the model of Golovashkin and Lykov {Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 74, 214 (1978) [Sov. Phys. JETP 47, 110 (1978)]}; we find that the step amplitude is smaller than predicted.