High-Energy Accelerators for Radiation Testing and Shielding

The main purpose of the HEARTS proposal is to provide high-energy (>100 MeV/n) heavy ion accelerator access to space users, in order to mimic the effects of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) at ground level, and thus fulfilling the needs of microelectronics qualification and shielding & radiobiology experiments.

These ions will successfully mimic the effects of heavy ions present in the GCR spectrum, and will also ensures penetration levels large enough to enable electronics testing in air, without the need of electronics device preparation (e.g. de-lidding, thinning) and at board and box level.

High penetration ion irradiation is essential in order to facilitate the exploitation of high-end microelectronics technology in space, for e.g. onboard artificial intelligence or Big Data processing applications.

To this end, the HEARTS proposal features CERN and GSI as accelerator infrastructure partners, who also gather a vast experience and knowledge in radiation effects on electronics, and shielding & radiobiology, respectively.

Moreover, HEARTS features also the University of Padova as academic partner, and Thales Alenia Space and Airbus Defence and Space as industrial participants, all of which have ample experience in the radiation effects domain, and a strong interest in VHE ion testing.

The academic and industrial partners will define the requirements, both technical and procedural, for VHE ion user facilities.

Such requirements will serve as input to CERN and GSI and will be implemented as upgrade which, once completed, will be scrutinized and validated by the industrial and academic partners, through “real case” experimental campaigns that will in turn serve as input for the development of VHE ion testing recommendations and guidelines.

Therefore, in final instance, HEARTS ambitions to create a high quality and sustainable VHE ion irradiation capacity in Europe, accessible to and tailored for space users and applications.