Radiation effect mitigation methods for electronic systems

Effects of space radiation on space systems have been considered as the main challenge in designing sustainable space systems, and investigations have been done about the mitigation methods against various types of radiation effects. On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the eastern Japan, particularly Tohoku area. Since then, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has been facing a crisis. To respond to this situation, Tohoku University conducted studies to redesign mobile robots for disaster response missions, and has realized the fact that there was no practical information available about the radiation effects on electronic devices to be installed on those mobile robots and the mitigation methods against them, which revealed the importance of establishing a knowledge-base about the way of designing radiation-tolerant or radiation-hard electronics systems even for terrestrial applications. Space Robotics Laboratory of Tohoku University has been conducting researches on space systems engineering and has gathered knowledge about the radiation effects on space system's electronics devices through its real-life microsatellite development and operation activities. Based on this background, this paper summarizes the general radiation effects on electronics devices and the cost-effective way of their mitigation methods, together with the application example of microsatellite systems developed by the Space Robotics Laboratory. This paper aims to contribute to establish such kind of knowledge-base together with a variety of aerospace and terrestrial engineering communities.