Space radiation environment prediction for VLSI microelectronics devices onboard a LEO satellite using OMERE-TRAD software

Abstract Space radiation environment at Low Earth Orbits (LEO) with perigee at 300 km, apogee at 600 km altitude having different orbital inclinations was modeled in the form of electrons and protons trapped in Van Allen Earth Radiation Belts (ERBs), heavy ions and protons in Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs), and Energetic Solar Particles (ESP) Events during solar maximum period. The co-relation between various shielding thicknesses and particles transport flux was analyzed for this specific orbit. We observed that there is an optimum shield thickness above which the attenuation of the transmitted flux of incident particles is negligible. To estimate the orbit average differential and integral fluxes to be encountered by onboard devices an appropriate radiation environment models were chosen in OMERE-TRAD toolkit and the impact of various shielding thickness for different orbital inclinations on integral Linear-Energy-Transfer (LET) spectra were determined.

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