Efficient Radiation Shielding Through Direct Metal Laser Sintering

Functional and parametric degradation of microcircuits due to total ionizing dose (TID) often poses serious obstacles to deployment of critical state-of-the-art (SOTA) technologies in NASA missions. Moreover, because device dielectrics in which such degradation occurs vary from one fabrication lot to the next, these effects must be reevaluated on a lot-by-lot basis. Often, the most effective mitigation against TID degradation is the addition of radiation shielding to the electronics box. Unfortunately, shielding materials can add significant amounts of mass to a system, particularly when vulnerable parts require shielding over 4π steradians. One method for reducing mass is to apply spot shielding located only on the critical components that require it. Reduced box- and/or spacecraft-level shielding will necessitate more complex spot shielding to protect the component from the omnidirectional radiation environment.