Patent ID: 9506970
Filing Date: 2016-11-29
CPC Classification: G01B,G01R,H01L

Claim Text:
1. A method for characterizing the sensitivity of an electronic component to a natural radiation environment, comprising the steps of: turning on the electronic component; determining, for characteristics of an incident beam or particle, a safe operating area (SOA) voltage range beyond which destructive events occur to the electronic component; exciting the electronic component with the incident beam or particle under operating conditions just below the operation conditions of a highest voltage in the determined SOA voltage range; determining an effective section of amplified transient events occurring within the determined SOA voltage range, the effective section corresponding to an estimate of an occurrence of an event destructive to the electronic component; modifying the characteristics of the incident beam or particle; and repeating the steps of exciting the electronic component with the modified incident beam and particle, and determining the effective section for the incident beam or particle with the modified characteristics when one or more amplified transient events are triggered.