Testing a Prototype Detector Array on a Chip Using Heavy-Ion Beams

Many existing radiation detectors are either large, need to be actively powered, or require a significant time delay before the detector can be analyzed. Some detectors have multiple of these drawbacks. This creates a knowledge gap for certain applications, which must be filled by rapid and energy efficient detectors. Previous studies have shown that SONOS transistor flash memory devices are sensitive to heavy ion radiation which creates the possibility of using them as a new small, passive form of detector that can be analyzed reasonably quickly and reused. This project focuses on a prototype chip developed by Cerium Labs to test the effectiveness of the concept. Each chip has capacitors (instead of transistors) with 6 different configurations, which allows for multiple designs to be tested simultaneously. To determine their response to exposure, the chips were exposed to heavy ion radiation in the form of helium-4, nitrogen-14, and argon-40 beams at 15 MeV/u for varying lengths of time. Then the changes of the potential on each capacitor were recorded and analyzed in order to determine the feasibility of each configuration. The results of these systematic studies will be shown.