Abstract

Electronic parts in space inevitably subject to radiation effects leading to the degradation of electronic performance or even failure, so radiation performance of an electronic part must be assessed to ensure it work normally in space. At present, to assess the ion radiation effects on a semiconductor device is directly through irradiation tests. However, due to the scarcity of cyclotron resources, the test time is difficult to appoint and the cost is huge. Due to schedule and budget constraints, it is also impossible to conduct irradiation tests on all semiconductor devices in actual space missions. Therefore, assessment of the radiation effects on semiconductor devices through irradiation tests has caused difficulties. Radiation susceptibility of semiconductor device is determined by the design topology and fabrication technology, and the irradiation test data shows that similar semiconductor devices has similar radiation susceptibility, so a method to assess the radiation effects on semiconductor devices base on similarity theory is proposed at first time in this paper. This assessing method does not require irradiation testing and does not require separate sampling. It has the virtues of easy implementation, quick response and low cost, providing an efficient method of assessing radiation effects on semiconductor devices.