Basic Information About The Estec Co-60 Facility - ESCIES

• 
• Our activities
• Technologies
• Other resources

Search:

Document Properties
Feedback to:	Alessandra Costantino
Published:	03-12-2013
Public Document

1. Co60 Facility Overview

2. Conditions for beam time at ESA-ESTEC Co-60 Facility

3. Designing & planning the experiment

Test Plan Outline

Test Scheduling

Request of beam time

4. Test campaign

1. Co60 Facility Overview

The radiation facility has been reloaded on September 2021 with a 2000 Ci Co-60 gamma source. The Co-60 has an half-life of 5.25 years, Co60 decays by beta decay to Ni-60. The activated Ni nucleus emits two photons with energies of 1.173MeV and 1.332 MeV photons. The Co-60 source consists of multiple small rods about 50 mm long held around the periphery of a 30mm diameter container. The container is of double-welded steel construction made to the internationally approved standards. The source is stored in its own special housing, built of steel with integral lead shielding. When the source is raised to the irradiation position, the gamma beam produced by the Co-60 decay exits the irradiator unit through a collimator window into the radiation cell. The facility consists of the radiation cell a and large external control room with 14 cable feed-throughs that enable the remote monitoring and controlling of experiments. The feedthroughs are U-shaped pipes with a diameter of 15 cm (See drawing below). Cable length required from control room to irradiation room is 6 meters. Automated total dose and dose rate measuremnent is performed during irradiation using Dosemeter with 0.6cc ionisation chamber. The methods for the determination of the Total Ionsing Dose and the Dose Rate used in the laboratory have been accredited against ISO-17025. (accredited by RvA accoding to ISO/IEC17025.2017 Certificate No. L517) A Radiation Test Summary is issued for each experiment performed. While irradiating dose rates are easily changed by use of a Remote Positioning System consisting of trolley on a rail system installed in the radiation cell. Up to three tests can run in parallel, still the feasibility of an irradiation test is subjected to the space of irradiation area available for placing the board. Irradiation test planning can be checked using the Excel file Schedule Template avaliable here: Planning, schedule & beam request form

2. Conditions for beam time use at ESA-ESTEC Co-60 Facility

For any further information and request beamtime, please contact the facility admin by e-mail [email protected] The beamtime request will be intiated when the beam request form is received: Facility schedule and beam request form are available here: Schedule & beam request form For ESA funded activities : The support needed to operate the facility during irradiation will be charged against an internal ESA budget-line, which has to be provided beforehand by the Technical Officer of the activity. Please be aware that the beam time request cannot be handled before the written approval of the Technical Officer and the project controller. For non ESA funded activities: Beam time can be made available for other tests if the campaign, the cost of the test execution in this case will be charged to the company. When a request with a Test Plan is received a time slot will be preliminary assigned at the facility based on the users requestand the availability of beam time. Once this review procedure is complete, ie when both parties are in agreement the beam slot will be confirmed. Eventually the Final Test Report has to be sent to the ESTEC Technical Officer and to [email protected] for publication on the ESCIES Radiation Database (public website). It is important for the radiation effects community that these reports are made available. Further agreement can be arranged in case of confidential information contained in the report, so that the document will only be placed on the internal ESTEC server of the Co-60 Facility. Below is an verview of the complete procedure to perform a test campaign at ESA-ESTEC Co60 facility

3.Designing & Planning the test:

The DUTs/board is placed in vertical position in front of the source collimator. It is recommended that a constant dose rate is used throughout the test campaign to avoid any potential dose-rate dependent effects. The maximum surface that can be irradiated depends on the dose rate selected. Placement of DUTs and boards for irradiation: during irradiation the boards are placed vertically on a table in front of the source. To facilitate the vertical positioning of the board, vertical supports can be provided by the facility: to allow the installation of the boards on the supports with standoff and spacers, boards shall have 3mm holes on the board corners. Other custom setups can be arranged if this standard support solution is not appropiate.

Test Plan Outline

With all the above points in mind you should be able to formulate a practical test plan and upload upon request of the beamtime. If not available when the beam time request is made, it can be sent later to [email protected] . The test plan should include, as a minimum: • a full description of the device(s) • the dose levels, the dose rate, dose steps, • number of devices (at least one non-irradiated reference device) • the environmental conditions, • any biasing conditions, • parameters measured during irradiation and at dose steps, • the requirements to locally shield components not under test, • post-irradiation annealing conditions , • board layout (with dimentsions), • intermediate measurement schedule

Test Scheduling

The facility operates 24/24h but it is only accessible between 8:30 - 18:30 (Mon-Thu) and 8:30-16 (Fri). To plan your test and the intermediate measurements please use the excel file available here: Planning, schedule & beam request form Open the excel file, click on “Enable Content” and complete the light blue fields accordingly to your requirements to check if the intermediate measuremetns are feasible. Once you find a suitable plan, attach it to your test plan or send it to [email protected] for review.

Available Equipment

Multiplexer/DVMs (which is connected to the control computer through IEEE) allows logging of voltages and currents and environmental conditions (temperature, pressure). Remote Positioning System (RPS) : a trolley on a rail system that allows placing of the DUT according to the dose rate. Eight-channel power supply (also connected via IEEE) is available for setting and monitoring of voltages and currents. Patch panel in the irradiation room with banana connections. Cabling is available to connect equipment from the radiation room to the patch panels in the control room. (Eg. 8 pairs of 4mm (banana) sockets for biasing and 50 way IDC cable(s) for data logging) Common laboratory equipment can usually be provided: power supplies, DVMs, Oscilloscopes, Oscillators, Signal generators

4.Test Campaign

Before arrival at ESTEC please inform us who is attending the test and their affiliation so that Gate Passes can be arranged. Upon arrival at the facility before working in the local control room and entry to the radiation chamber visitors must read an on-line safety tutorial, after which they will be issued with an EPD (electronic personal dosimeter). These dosimeters are for reference only and are not part of an official dosimetry service. Approved radiation workers should bring there own radiation badge and radiation passport. When the test is ended a Radiation Test Summary will be issued stating the dose and dose rates received by the components / samples under test. Visitors will also be expected to complete a questionnaire to help with future facility and service improvements.

Links & Contact info

Planning, schedule & beam request form

Video on the facility : Radiation testing for Space

To reserve the beam time please contact: [email protected]

Address

ESA-ESTEC Keplerlaan 1 2201 AZ, Noordwijk The Netherlands

ESA-TECEDR-LAB-BR-2025-001973 v1.0 - Last update 20/06/2025