Measured Energy-Dependent Neutron Attenuation through the Stacked Printed Circuit Boards

Stephen A. Wender; John M. O'Donnell; Lukas Zavorka; Bharat Bhuva

doi:10.1109/TNS.2020.2977275

Measured Energy-Dependent Neutron Attenuation through the Stacked Printed Circuit Boards

Stephen A. Wender, John M. O'Donnell, Lukas Zavorka, Bharat Bhuva

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Engineers often stack printed circuit boards (PCBs), populated with semiconductor devices, one behind the other in neutron beams to improve the error statistics in radiation-effects tests. As the neutron beam traverses through the boards, the neutron flux is both attenuated and the energy spectrum changes, which may have a significant impact on the results of such tests. We have developed a technique to measure the energy-dependent neutron attenuation due to the PCBs and to determine the energy-dependent effective cross section of neutron interactions with a single PCB. With this effective cross section, engineers can calculate the change in the neutron energy spectrum and the total neutron attenuation after any number of identical PCBs in the stack. This information will allow test engineers to partially correct inaccuracies in soft error tests.

Original language	English
Article number	9018070
Pages (from-to)	1114-1117
Number of pages	4
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
Volume	67
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TNS.2020.2977275
State	Published - Jun 2020
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Neutron beam attenuation
neutron radiation effects
soft error testing

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10.1109/TNS.2020.2977275

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title = "Measured Energy-Dependent Neutron Attenuation through the Stacked Printed Circuit Boards",

abstract = "Engineers often stack printed circuit boards (PCBs), populated with semiconductor devices, one behind the other in neutron beams to improve the error statistics in radiation-effects tests. As the neutron beam traverses through the boards, the neutron flux is both attenuated and the energy spectrum changes, which may have a significant impact on the results of such tests. We have developed a technique to measure the energy-dependent neutron attenuation due to the PCBs and to determine the energy-dependent effective cross section of neutron interactions with a single PCB. With this effective cross section, engineers can calculate the change in the neutron energy spectrum and the total neutron attenuation after any number of identical PCBs in the stack. This information will allow test engineers to partially correct inaccuracies in soft error tests.",

keywords = "Neutron beam attenuation, neutron radiation effects, soft error testing",

author = "Wender, {Stephen A.} and O'Donnell, {John M.} and Lukas Zavorka and Bharat Bhuva",

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AB - Engineers often stack printed circuit boards (PCBs), populated with semiconductor devices, one behind the other in neutron beams to improve the error statistics in radiation-effects tests. As the neutron beam traverses through the boards, the neutron flux is both attenuated and the energy spectrum changes, which may have a significant impact on the results of such tests. We have developed a technique to measure the energy-dependent neutron attenuation due to the PCBs and to determine the energy-dependent effective cross section of neutron interactions with a single PCB. With this effective cross section, engineers can calculate the change in the neutron energy spectrum and the total neutron attenuation after any number of identical PCBs in the stack. This information will allow test engineers to partially correct inaccuracies in soft error tests.

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Measured Energy-Dependent Neutron Attenuation through the Stacked Printed Circuit Boards

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