Radiation hardness assurance of electronic components, with special reference to semiconductor devices and evaluation statistics

Statistical requirements of nuclear radiation testing of sensitive semiconductor devices are considered and a procedure to enable an appropriate reliability assessment to be made in the event of a nuclear weapon explosion is outlined. The procedure is demonstrated using reported radiation test data for commercial memory devices. The resulting statistically assessed hardness is used to find the reliability impact at a 95% confidence level on a hypothetical equipment with a specified level of radiation environment and a population of 10 such devices.