Investigation of the Limits of the Ray-Tracing Method Applied on Dose Analysis for Radiation Hardness Assurance

Radiation hardness assurance (RHA) is critical for a space project as it ensures that electronics will perform to their design specifications during exposure to the mission’s radiation environment. The ray-tracing (RT) method (or sector analysis) is commonly used by radiation engineers to estimate the dose at the electronic component level; however, it relies on specific hypotheses. In this article, the limits of the RT method are investigated to understand how the method can be improved and to propose recommendations for the dose calculation. As a first step, the impact of the shielding sectoring resolution is explored and the results are compared to the recommendations of the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS)-E-ST-10-12C. The second part of this article investigates the influence of the shielding material on the dose curve computation, the main input of the RT calculation. Finally, the role of the spacing between different materials as well as the distribution of materials along the particle path is explored.