The future of the SIRAD SEE facility: Ion–Electron Emission Microscopy

The SIRAD facility is dedicated to radiation damage studies on semiconductor detectors, electronic devices and systems, using proton and ion beams delivered by a 15 MV tandem accelerator. It is routinely used by groups involved in detector development for elementary particle physics, electronic device physics and space applications. In particular, Single Event Effect studies are very important to the latter two activities. Presently, the facility can only characterize the global sensitivity of a device or system to single ion impacts. To map out the sensitivity of a device with micrometric resolution, following an idea developed at SANDIA, we will implement an Ion–Electron Emission Microscope (IEEM) to reconstruct the X,Y and time coordinates of an impacting energetic ion by imaging the secondary electrons emitted by the sample using a standard emission electron microscope and position sensitive detector system. After describing typical Single Event Effect activities at SIRAD we will discuss the basic principles, design constraints of the IEEM at SIRAD, and the expected performance of such a system.