Tags:Displacement Damage Dose (DD), Electronic Displays, Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), Organic LEDs (OLED), Radiation Effects, Radiation Tolerance, Single Event Effects (SEE), Single Event Functional Interrupt (SEFI), Thin-film Transistors (TFTs) and Total Ionizing Dose (TID)
Abstract:
To further develop the foundation of radiation effects in electronic displays, a multi-institution collaboration has conducted initial heavy ion (single event effect) and 64 MeV proton irradiation (cumulative dose) test campaigns to 1) develop the characterization and analysis techniques for electronic displays and 2) collect test data for broadly assessing the susceptibility of display technologies. In accordance with the shift towards utilization of commercial-off-the shelf components and systems, it is pragmatic to evaluate a range of commercially available pixel technologies that could be selected by designers or original equipment manufacturers based on the trade-space of performance, cost, and resource requirements. From these test results, radiation-induced degradation in the pixel technology of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), backlight thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs), and light emitting diode (LED) dot arrays was demonstrated and used to examine the significance of the red, green, and blue pixels degrading at distinct rates (non-uniform). Additionally, heavy ion tests allowed for cataloguing of non-destructive visual single event error signatures to better categorize error signatures as acceptable/unacceptable and preemptively develop and identify the software mitigation approaches for the computer systems that ultimately drive the electronic displays. The intent of this presentation is to socialize the necessity of radiation tolerant electronic displays for future crewed missions to the broader space computing community, outline characterization and analysis techniques utilized for characterizing radiation-induced degradation in human-interface applications, and summarize radiation test results from a cross-section of commercially available display technologies to grow the body-of-knowledge in anticipation of the need for reliable electronic displays for crewed missions.
An Examination of the Radiation Tolerance of Electronic Displays for Future Crewed Missions