June 29, 2001 Space is a tough environment for electronics. A
burst of radiation from a solar flare can damage a satellite's
delicate circuits and knock years off its working life. Now
research by a University of California, Davis, engineering
student is pointing the way to more radiation-resistant
microchips. Anne Vandooren, a graduate student in the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, studied how heat, gamma
rays, X-rays and proton irradiation affect microchips built with
silicon-on-oxide (SOI) technology. SOI chips are used for low-
power applications such as cell phones, pagers and personal
organizers. Radiation damages microchips by creating electrical
charges in the insulation between transistors, said engineering
professor Jean-Pierre Colinge, who supervised the project. His
laboratory has previously developed ways to build SOI microchips
where transistors are in less contact with insulation. During
her research, Vandooren was able to develop a general model of
how radiation affects analo