Extreme-value theory applications to space radiation damage assessment in satellite microelectronics

Abstract

Calculations of the first and second moments uf displacement damagt; energy distributions from clastic collisions and from nuclear reitclions, at proton energies ranging from 10 MeV to .TOO MeV, are incorporated into a model dcscrihjrg the probability of damage as a function of the proton fluence and the size of Ihc sensitive micro-volume in Si. Comparisons between the predicted and measured leakage currents in Si imaging arrays illustrate how the Poisson distribution of higher energy nuclear reaction recoils affects the pixcl-to-pixel variance In the damage across the array for proton exposures equivalent to mission duration of a few years within the earth's trapped proton belts. Extreme value statistics (EVS) quantify the largest expected damage extremes following a given proton flucncc, and an analysis derived from the first-principle damage calculations shows excellent agieement with the measured extremes. EVS is also used to demonstrate the presence of high dark current pixels, or "spikes," which occur from different mechanisms. Different sources of spikes were seen in two different imager designs.