Reliability of semiconductor and gas-filled diodes for over-voltage protection exposed to ionizing radiation

Reliability of semiconductor and gas-filled diodes for over-voltage protection exposed to ionizing radiation

Blog Article

The wide-spread use of semiconductor and gas-filled diodes for non-linear over-voltage protection results in a variety of possible working conditions.It is therefore essential to have a thorough insight into their reliability in exploitation environments which imply exposure to ionizing radiation.The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of irradiation on over-voltage diode characteristics read more by exposing the diodes to californium-252 combined neutron/gamma radiation field.

The irradiation of semiconductor over-voltage diodes causes severe degradation of their protection characteristics.On the other hand, gas-filled over-voltage diodes exhibit a temporal improvement of performance.The results are presented with the lock shock and barrel art accompanying theoretical interpretations of the observed changes in over-voltage diode behaviour, based on the interaction of radiation with materials constituting the diodes.