Semiconductor Lifetime and Reliability
Neutron exposure ages semiconductors in a controlled way, letting mission-lifetime reliability be measured before deployment.
Aging on purpose
A semiconductor device destined for a radiation environment will degrade over its mission, through both displacement damage and accumulated single-event history. Rather than discover that in the field, a controlled neutron campaign ages representative parts to their expected end-of-life exposure and measures how their performance holds up.
What reliability testing yields
- Parameter drift over mission-equivalent exposure
- Onset of functional failure modes
- Confidence bounds for lifetime predictions
Why a 14 MeV source helps
Because displacement damage and neutron-induced upsets both scale with energy, a 14 MeV source provides a demanding, representative aging environment. Combined with fluence and temperature logging, it produces reliability data a program can defend.
Kronos offers device reliability testing within its neutron service, alongside SEE and displacement characterization. The machine is a design study; construction begins Q2 2027.
Confidence bounds, not point estimates
A single aged sample tells you little; reliability requires enough parts and enough exposure to state confidence bounds on when performance will fall below a threshold. A steady 14 MeV source lets a population of devices be aged to mission-equivalent exposure so that a distribution, not just a mean, can be reported. Program offices plan around those bounds, which is why the statistical design of a campaign matters as much as the beam. Logging fluence and temperature throughout the campaign lets those confidence bounds be tied to a specific, reproducible exposure, which is what makes a lifetime prediction defensible to a program office.
This page describes a design and simulation study, not a built machine. The breeder (Hyperion) begins construction Q2 2027; first-of-a-kind first tritium is targeted near 2030. No hardware net-gain is claimed before then.