Radiation tolerance of the charge measurement ASIC for the ASO-S HXI spectrometer

Abstract

BackgroundHard X-ray Imager (HXI) is one of the three scientific payloads onboard of the advanced space-based solar observatory (ASO-S). The calorimeter of HXI consists of 99 LaBr3 crystal and photomultiplier tube (PMT) detection units. A highly integrated charge-measurement application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) with model IDE3381 is adopted in the front-end electronics of the calorimeter to process the signals from the 99 detection units on the space-limited and power-limited satellite platform.PurposeThis study aims to evaluate the radiation tolerance of model IDE3381 ASIC in a space radiation environment.MethodsA test bench with a flexible structure was designed by separating the device undergoing testing from the data acquisition (DAQ) system, hence shielding DAQ from the radiation environment. The performance of ASIC was automatically tested and monitored in the test bench during radiation tests. Both single-event effect (SEE), including single-event upset and single-event latch-up, and total ionizing dose (TID) tests were carried out by using a heavy ion beam and 60Co gamma-ray, respectively.ResultsThe test results show that the SEE threshold of model IDE3381 ASIC is greater than 75 MeV∙cm2∙mg-1, and the TID capacity is greater than 30 krad(Si).ConclusionsThe radiation tolerance of the charge measurement ASIC (model IDE 3381) meets the requirements of ASO-S HXI flight model.

Keywords

• space electronics
• radiation effects
• application-specific integrated circuit (asic)