Examination of the utility of commercial-off-the-shelf memory devices as X-ray detectors

An examination was conducted of the use of standard memory devices as X-ray detectors. Commercial-off- the-shelf memory devices such as flash memory, UV-EPROM, DRAM, and non-volatile SRAM units were studied. The memory states of the devices were continuously monitored as a function of time and X-ray flux. It was found that in all configurations used, the devices were not practical X-Ray dosimeters; hard fails were nearly as prevalent as soft fails.