The Application of Microdosimetric Principles to Radiation Hardness Testing

Chord length distributions for rectangular parallelepipeds of various relative dimensions were studied in relation to radiation hardness testing. For each geometry, a differential chord length distribution was generated using a Monte Carlo method to simulate exposure to an isotropic radiation source. The frequency and dose distributions of chord length crossings for each geometry, as well as the means of these distributions, are presented. In every case, the dose mean chord length was greater than the frequency mean chord length with a 34.5% increase found for the least extreme case of a cube. This large increase of the dose mean chord length relative to the frequency mean chord length demonstrates the need to consider rare, long-chord-length crossings in radiation hardness testing of electronic components.