Page 47 - SPECTRUM

There are two types of radiation effects.
•TID - Total Ionizing Dose (Long term effect) A particle passing through a

transistor generates electron-hole pairs in the device’s oxide or inter-face ox-
ide and transfers energy through the material. This phenomenon is known

as TID. Increased charge carriers affect several parameters of semi-conductor
devices or may lead to complete functional failure.

•SEE - Single event effects (Single-particle effect) It can be defined as an ion-
izing effect caused by a single charged particle.

It is classified as soft errors and hard errors. Soft errors can cause bit flips,
changes in the state of memory cells or registers, component to reset, and

lock-up. Hard errors are errors in which there will be an irreversible change
in operation to one or more elements of a device or circuit.

Vibration

There are execs of vibration at the time of launchings well as when satellite
separates from the rocket. It can turn into functional failure in electronic

components and circuits. One dynamic structural shock which occurs when

an explosion occurs is “Pyrotechnic shock”, which is the response of the
structure to high frequency or high magnitude stress waves that propagate

throughout the structure as a result of an explosive charge. It occurs during
the separation of two stages of the rocket.

Scope for EC engineers in space Industry

Now, as we are aware of the challenges as wells importance of electronics in
space application let’s take a glance at some opportunities for an Engineer in

this field.
ISRO NASA

•Scientist/Engineer (SC) •Electronics engineer, AST, Avionics

systems
•Controller in semiconductor Labo- •Chief Engineer, Space communica-

ratory (SCL) tion & Navi-nation (Span)

•Technical Assistant (Electronics) •Supervisory Stagioni System
•Technician (Electroplating) •Engineering Project Management

•Draughtsman • Technical Project Management
•Junior Research Fellow

•Research Associate

SPECTRUM Pg. 42 ISSUE 1