Space Environment Simulator for Testing of Materials and Devices

Hrant N. Yeritsyan, Vachagan V. Harutunyan, Aram A. Sahakyan, Sergej K. Nikoghosyan, Agasi S. Hovhannisyan, Norair E. Grigoryan, Karen Sh. Ohanyan, Eleonora A. Hakhverdyan, Narek A. Hakopyan, Vahan A. Sahakyan

A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory, Yerevan Physics Institute, Yerevan, Armenia.
Institute of Metrology of Armenian Republic, Yerevan, Armenia.

DOI: 10.4236/jmp.2013.42025                

Abstract

Equipment has been designed and created for experimental simulation of space environment conditions of Geostationary orbit of the Earth. The following conditions are supported in the vacuum chamber having volume of 1.2 cubic meters: Vacuum 10^-5 Torr. (1.3 × 10^-3 Pa), electron beam with energy up to 8 MeV, temperatures from -150°C to +150°C and solar ultraviolet radiation. The peculiarity of this equipment is the possibility of analyzing complex simultaneous influence of mentioned above 4 factors on the sample and in-situ direct measurement of sample parameters under irradiation which provides almost real conditions. Silicon single crystals used in space environment were tested in the vacuum chamber and new results were received having scientific and applied interest. It was shown, particularly, that the electro-conductivity of silicon samples has higher value at in-situ condition than ex-situ after irradiation.

Keywords

Space; Silicon; Radiation Defects (RD); Conductivity; Carrier Concentration

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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