Method for System-Level Testing of COTS Electronic Board Under High-Energy Heavy Ions

More and more commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic components are used inside embedded electronic systems for space applications. Unfortunately, for obvious cost reasons, no radiation characterization exists for these devices. We describe a method to characterize the single-event effect (SEE) sensitivity of an electronic system in ambient air without opening devices, with linear energy transfers (LETs) up to more than 40 MeV·cm
²
· mg
^-1
. Transport of ions in matter (TRIM) is used for calculations.