Changes in modern integrated circuit (IC) technologies have modified the way we approach and conduct radiation tolerance and testing of electronics. These changes include scaling of geometries, new materials, new packaging technologies, and overall speed and device complexity challenges. In this short course section, we will identify and discuss these issues as they impact radiation testing, mo...

Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) provide an ideal platform for meeting the performance, cost and flexibility requirements of on-board processing in spacebourne applications. However, given the reliance on SRAM-based configuration memory, off-the-shelf FPGAs are vulnerable to radiation-induced Single Event Upsets (SEUs). The detection and mitigation of the effects of SEUs is therefore of p...

Mountain waters, glaciers, hazards, and biodiversity are vulnerable to the impacts of global warming. Warming is projected to amplify over mountains by global climate models, yet meteorological records do not show a uniform acceleration of warming with elevation. Here we explore warming-elevation relationships using records from 2660 meteorological stations and determine that the vertical gradi...

SRAM-based FPGAs are sensitive to radiation effects. Soft errors can appear and accumulate, potentially defeating mitigation strategies deployed at the Application Layer. Therefore, Configuration Memory scrubbing is required to improve radiation tolerance of such FPGAs in space applications. Virtex FPGAs allow runtime scrubbing by means of dynamic partial reconfiguration. Even with scrubbing, i...

Syringe-like ZnO nanorods (NRs) were fabricated on InGaN/GaN light emitting diodes (LEDs) by a hydrothermal method. Without sacrificing the electrical performances of LEDs, syringe-like NRs can enhance light extraction capability by 10.5% at 20 mA and shape the radiation profile with a view angle collimated from 136° to 121°. By performing optical experiments and simulation, it is found that th...

Following the Chernobyl accident of April 26, 1986, two population groups were primarily exposed to radiation: emergency workers involved in mitigation of the accident consequences (liquidators) and residents of contaminated territories. A dramatic increase in thyroid cancer incidence among residents exposed as children has been apparent since 1992. However, there remains considerable uncertain...

BACKGROUND Radiation therapy is generally contraindicated for cancer patients with collagen vascular diseases (CVD) such as scleroderma due to an increased risk of fibrosis. The tight skin (TSK) mouse has skin which, in some respects, mimics that of patients with scleroderma. The skin radiation response of TSK mice has not been previously reported. If TSK mice are shown to have radiation sensit...

Once outside of the Earth’s atmosphere astronauts are exposed to two main types of radiation, galactic cosmic rays (GCR) and solar energetic particles. GCRs consist of high energy, charged nuclei of elements ranging from H (hydrogen) to Fe (iron). High energy, charged nuclei of H (protons) are the major component of GCRs whereas approximately 1% of GCRs are larger ions with charges greater than...

German sociologist Ulrich Beck declared two decades ago, in 1992, that we are living in a "risk society" [2]. Not only do we face risks from natural hazards that are beyond human control, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, we also make conscious decisions to create, negotiate, and accept risks from man-made hazards, including radiation from nuclear power plants, chest x-rays, flying in an airpla...

The Reconfigurable Hardware in Orbit (RHinO) project is focused on creating a set of design tools that facilitate and automate design techniques for reconfigurable computing in space, using SRAM-based field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) technology. In the second year of the project, design tools that leverage an established FPGA design environment have been created to visualize and analyze an ...