Dose Rate Tolerant HEXFET Power Supply

A summary of flash x-ray testing of power HEXFET transistors (IRF 351's) and a power supply employing HEXFETs is presented. HEXFETs are shown to exhibit a dose rate damage sensitivity which is triggered by less than one hundreth of the normal single pulsed energy rating. The power supply testing demonstrates that HEXFETs can be used in high power applications in a high dose rate environment if a current limiting configuration is employed.