Pulsed, Focused Electrons as a Surrogate Single-Event Effects Testing Technique

Pulsed, focused electrons are presented as a possible surrogate to single-event effect (SEE) testing. Electrons have the capability to penetrate deep into a material and provide an equivalent linear energy transfer (LET) in silicon to that of a heavy ion. Through experiment, modeling, and simulation of a large areapinphotodiode, we have shown that this method can act as an alternative way to test for SEEs as long as the spot size of the electron bunch is small enough to saturate the local carrier collection dynamics. There are no known fundamental physical limitations to preclude pulsed, focused electrons as a tool to be used for predictive SEE capability.