Study of the Impact of the LHC Radiation Environments on the Synergistic Displacement Damage and Ionizing Dose Effect on Electronic Components

Bipolar-based components can exhibit a higher (or lower) degradation when exposed to both total ionizing dose (TID) and displacement damage (DD) effects simultaneously than the sum of the two separated effects. This paper investigates the implications of this synergistic effect on the radiation qualification process of large hadron collider's (LHC's) electronic equipment. More specifically, the impact of the wide range of DD/TID rate ratios of the LHC's areas on the synergistic degradation rates is investigated. An analysis of the ratios of a crucial part of the accelerator is performed. A demonstration of the ability of the CHARM mixed-field facility of CERN to perform radiation tests in representative LHC's ratios is also presented as well as radiation test results of a bipolar integrated circuit exposed to these different ratios are presented. Finally, the impact of this effect on the CERN radiation hardness assurance process is discussed and a simple method is proposed to qualify component against such effects.