Inclusion of Radiation Environment Variability in Total Dose Hardness Assurance Methodology.

Variability of the space radiation environment is investigated with regard to parts categorization for total dose hardness assurance methods. It is shown that it can have a significant impact. A modified approach is developed that uses current environment models more consistently and replaces the radiation design margin concept with one of failure probability during a mission.

Evaluating Constraints on Heavy-Ion SEE Susceptibility Imposed by Proton SEE Testing and Other Mixed Environments.

We develop metrics for assessing effectiveness of proton SEE data for bounding heavy-ion SEE susceptibility. The simplest metric is just the areal coverage for the test, which can be expressed as the area on the test part which is struck on average by a single ion. This simple quantity can yield important insights into the efficacy of a given SEE test. We also develop methods for bounding heavy-ion SEE rates with proton data for both nondestructive and destructive SEE modes and for identifying the SEE response characteristics that render such bounding methods ineffective.