It has been shown, that an ultra-low-power voltage controlled oscillator, realized with conventional NAND gates in ring-oscillator configuration, can be operated by a series connected pair of commercial Silicon pin solar cells, only irradiated by a high energy proton beam as power supply. However a very fast degradation of the solar cells is observed, leading to a stop of the oscillator operation after a very short time. By monitoring the oscillator frequency changes when the stack of photodiodes, in this case illuminated with weak ambient light, is not directly ex-posed to the proton beam but positioned in different positions close to the proton beam, an evaluation of the off-beam-axis irradiation damage could be done. A de-tailed electrical analysis of the photodiode properties before and after the direct proton irradiation has been added, confirming that both irradiated photodiodes suffered the same damage. This is due to the high energy of 68 MeV of the pro-ton beam with a projected range of the ions higher than the thickness of the 2 packaged pin diodes in stacked configuration.
A Nanowatt Oscillator powered only by 68 MeV Proton Irradiation of a Crystalline Silicon Photodiode Pair
Heinrich Christoph Neitzert;Arpana Singh;
2025
Abstract
It has been shown, that an ultra-low-power voltage controlled oscillator, realized with conventional NAND gates in ring-oscillator configuration, can be operated by a series connected pair of commercial Silicon pin solar cells, only irradiated by a high energy proton beam as power supply. However a very fast degradation of the solar cells is observed, leading to a stop of the oscillator operation after a very short time. By monitoring the oscillator frequency changes when the stack of photodiodes, in this case illuminated with weak ambient light, is not directly ex-posed to the proton beam but positioned in different positions close to the proton beam, an evaluation of the off-beam-axis irradiation damage could be done. A de-tailed electrical analysis of the photodiode properties before and after the direct proton irradiation has been added, confirming that both irradiated photodiodes suffered the same damage. This is due to the high energy of 68 MeV of the pro-ton beam with a projected range of the ions higher than the thickness of the 2 packaged pin diodes in stacked configuration.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
