Modeling the Effects of Gamma Irradiation Electro-Optic Components

The USAF Material Command (AFMC) and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMA) has a critical need to support military planners in establishing a cost effective approach to selecting components and identifying system behavior during the design process, minimizing expensive testing and design failures. Current test facilties are expensive to run as well as time consuming to provide adequate test results on qualifying every electro-optic component for adverse nuclear environments. The number of samples tested and the time to perform the tests add up costs on a program. Testing is necessary but could be greatly reduced if valid models were developed to yield the same results. Currently, very few models exist that predict the effects of ionizing radiation on electro-optic components. This effort with analyze the Analogy, Inc. software tools and derermine the viability of modeling the effects of gamma radiation on electo-optic components.