The knowledge about radiation effects on electronics is an important part in spacecraft design as the radiation environment in space may adversely affect EEE components. The effects can be corrupt data in the best case, but it can also lead to non-working subsystems which can hazard a whole mission. To reduce this risk are electronic components tested and qualified for space before they are used in missions. Many companies and institutions work with this kind of questions and the Components Division within the Product Assurance & Safety Department of ESA is one of them.
At the Components Division are components tested, simulations made and missions are supervised in terms of electronic components. As part of this work is the Component Technology Test Bed developed, it will serve as a test bed for radiation effects. It will fly on future ESA missions and the main objective is not only to test components but also to validate the methods used during ground tests.
Different type of electronics will be tested with the CTTB and in this report is one of them studied and the methods are evaluated. The report handles the optoelectronics part and in particular optocoupler devices.
During the work from January to end of June 2006 the author of this report first made a literature study on the radiation environment in space and on radiation effects on electronics. A pre-proposed design for test boards has been assessed and prototypes have been built. From the general ESA test method specifications have more application specific test methods been made. The methods has been tested during a smaller test campaign and from the results has suggestions for further development been proposed.
The measurement results for Current Transfer Ratio testing shows that the measurement system works well, but improvements for more accurate reference measurements has to be implemented. The Dark current measurement system shows a dose rate dependence which makes the results inaccurate. In-flight measurements of the Dark current will be hard to perform.
Author: Hansson, Johan
Source: Lulea University of Technology
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