Radiographic Effects on Electronic Components

Radiographic analysis (X-ray) is frequently used for evaluation or inspections of electronic hardware and components. Recently, there have been concerns within the technical community that X-ray exposure can be harmful to electronic hardware during analysis. Literature claims that X-ray inspections will cause damage to electronic components; however, some manufacturers of typical X-ray systems assert that the equipment simply cannot produce enough energy to cause failure within an electronic device [1]. The following analysis evaluates and summarizes the effects of X-ray exposure on the functionality of electronic components. Multiple types of electronic components were evaluated. This study demonstrated that X-ray exposure will degrade functionality of the ADR364AUJZ-REEL7 precision reference devices. All ADR364AUJZ-REEL7 precision references saw initial output degradation after only 15 minutes of X-ray exposure (approximately 140 rad). Interestingly, the MC7805CTG linear regulator, also evaluated in this study, showed no sensitivity or electrical performance degradation after 5 hours of exposure or ∼2800 rad despite having a similar function to the ADR364AUJZ-REEL7. The OPA2277 operational amplifiers also showed a similar degradation with quiescent current (I<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">q</sub>) values after X-ray exposure; however, no lower limit was specified in the datasheet for this parameter. All other components evaluated in this analysis showed no significant electrical degradation or performance change after 5 hours of exposure or ∼2800 rad.