Very first RADSAGA test campaign at GANIL

The very first RADSAGA test campaign was held at GANIL (Grand Accelerateur National des Ions Lourdes), in Caen, France from July 4th to 6th. The test campaign featured the participation of 4 ESRs: Vanessa Wyrwoll (ESR4), Kimmo Niskanen (ESR7), Tomasz Rajkowski (ESR12) and Andrea Coronetti (ESR15) with the extraordinary guest appearance of RADSAGA manager Rubén Garcìa Alìa.

Testing at GANIL is always a rare opportunity, but it is achieved thanks to the cooperation between RADSAGA and GANIL. This year the delivered beam was made of lead ions with energy up to 29 MeV/n (measured at the exit of the accelerator). As the DUT had to be placed at a minimum safety distance from the accelerator exit of about 70-80 mm (in air), the maximum energy at DUT surface was reduced to 24 MeV/n. Lower energies could be achieved by distancing the DUT from the accelerator exit up to 250 mm or by inserting variable thickness Aluminum slab degraders. This allowed triggering multiple LETs at the DUT in a range of 74-98 MeVcm²/mg.

16 hours of beam time in two slots of 8 were dedicated to RADSAGA experiments. Vanessa Wyrwoll (ESR4) tested a Pin Diode Canberra and was able to record multiple energy deposition events at 5 different energies. This experiment required big effort on the accelerator side, as it needed a flux of only 15 ions/cm²/s in order not to saturate the diode. Kimmo Niskanen (ESR7) tested 3 boards mounting 4 GaN power mosfets each. He conducted the test at multiple drain-source rated voltage and observed SEB only at around 90% of maximum voltage (about 600 V). Tomasz Rajkowski (ESR12) tested 2 boards bearing a DC-DC Point-of-Load Converter each. During irradiation he has observed multiple SETs at all energies under test. Finally, Rubén Garcìa Alìa had the chance to play the role of the experimenter once more and used a CERN SEE SRAM monitor to get a SEU cross-section curve and, thus, calibrate the beam delivered at GANIL.

ESR15 - Andrea Coronetti

Here some pictures from the test campaign.

 

The GANIL beam line with Tomasz Rajkowski and Andrea Coronetti (Credit Rubén Garcìa Alìa).

 

RADSAGA ESRs preparing for their tests, featuring Vanessa Wyrwoll, Kimmo Niskanen and Tomasz Rajkowski (Credit Andrea Coronetti).

 

Vanessa's Pin diode and ESA monitor mounted on the GANIL test bench (Credit Vanessa Wyrwoll).

 

Kimmo's GaN Power Mosfets during dry-run (Credit Andrea Coronetti).

 

Waiting for SEB occurrence with Kimmo Niskanen and Andrea Coronetti (Credit Tomasz Rajkowski).

 

Snapshot of Tomasz's POL Converters (Credit Tomasz Rajkowski).

 

Kimmo Niskanen and Tomasz Rajkowski in the irradiation area (Credit Tomasz Rajkowski).