The effects of heavy ion radiation on digital micromirror device performance

Anton Travinsky; Dmitry Vorobiev; Zoran Ninkov; Alan D. Raisanen; Jonathan A. Pellish; Massimo Robberto; Sara Heap

doi:10.1117/12.2233240

22 July 2016 The effects of heavy ion radiation on digital micromirror device performance

Anton Travinsky, Dmitry Vorobiev, Zoran Ninkov, Alan D. Raisanen, Jonathan A. Pellish, Massimo Robberto, Sara Heap

Proceedings Volume 9912, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation II; 99125W (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2233240
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

There is a pressing need in the astronomical community for space-suitable multi-object spectrometers (MOSs). Several digital micromirror device (DMD)-based prototype MOSs have been developed for ground-based observatories; however, their main use will come with deployment on a space based mission. Therefore, performance of DMDs under exoatmospheric radiation needs to be evaluated. In our previous work we demonstrated that DMDs are tolerant to heavy ion irradiation in general and calculated upset rate of 4.3 micromirrors in 24 hours in orbit for 1-megapixel device. The goal of this additional experiment was to acquire more data and therefore increase the accuracy of the predicted in-orbit micromirror upset rate. Similar to the previous experiment, for this testing 0.7 XGA DMDs were re-windowed with 2 μm thick pellicle and tested under accelerated heavy-ion radiation (with control electronics shielded from radiation) with a focus on detection of single-event upsets (SEUs). We concentrated on ions with low levels of linear energy transfer (LET) 1.8 – 13 MeV•cm²•mg^-1 to cover the most critical range of the Weibull curve for those devices. As during the previous experiment, we observed and documented non-destructive heavy ion-induced micromirror state changes. All SEUs were always cleared with a soft reset (that is, sending a new pattern to the device). The DMDs we tested did not experience single-event induced permanent damage or functional changes that required a hard reset (power cycle), even at high ion fluences. Based on the data obtained in the experiments we predict micromirror in-orbit upset rate of 5.6 micromirrors in 24 hours in-orbit for the tested devices. This suggests that the heavy-ion induced SEU rate burden for a DMD-based instrument will be manageable when exposed to solar particle fluxes and cosmic rays in orbit.

Citation Download Citation

Anton Travinsky, Dmitry Vorobiev, Zoran Ninkov, Alan D. Raisanen, Jonathan A. Pellish, Massimo Robberto, and Sara Heap "The effects of heavy ion radiation on digital micromirror device performance", Proc. SPIE 9912, Advances in Optical and Mechanical Technologies for Telescopes and Instrumentation II, 99125W (22 July 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2233240

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