A novel method for neutron energy spectrum measurement base on Single Event Upset of Static Random Access Memories

Abstract

Abstract Without the time-of-flight, the neutron energy spectrum measurements are difficult. Bonner sphere spectrometer and threshold detectors are normally employed for this neutron field measurement. The complexity and budget of these systems restrict their applications. According to the investigation of SRAMs’ (Static Random Access Memories) Single Event Upset (SEU) cross-sections, a novel method of neutron energy spectrum measurement up to tens of MeV energy range is proposed in this paper, which is more available and lower cost. From a series of the published SRAM cross-section results by previous work and the upset rate of these SRAMs, the unknown neutron energy spectrum can be evaluated. A SVD (singular value decomposition) method is used for deriving the energy spectrum. In further research, the relationship between the quantity of SRAMs and the resolve accuracy is studied with the theory of information entropy. It proves that the energy spectrum accuracy is highly depended on the SEU cross-sections active range and the number of different SRAMs.