ANEM: A rotating composite target to produce an atmospheric-like neutron beam at the LNL SPES facility

Abstract

A fast neutron (E> MeV) irradiation facility is under development at the 70 MeV SPES proton cyclotron at LNL (Legnaro, Italy) to investigate neutron-induced Single Event Effects (SEE) in microelectronic devices and systems. After an overview on neutron-induced SEE in electronics, we report on the progress in the design of ANEM (Atmospheric Neutron EMulator), a water-cooled rotating target made of Be and W to produce neutrons with an energy spectrum similar to that of neutrons produced by cosmic rays at sea-level. In ANEM, the protons from the cyclotron alternatively impinge on two circular sectors of Be and W of different areas; the effective neutron spectrum is a weighted combination of the spectra from the two sectors. In this contribution, we present the results of thermal-mechanical Finite Element Analysis (ANSYS) calculations of the performance of the ANEM prototype. The calculations at this stage indicate that ANEM can deliver fast neutrons with an atmospheric-like energy spectrum and with an integral flux [Formula: see text](1-70 MeV) [Formula: see text]107 n cm[Formula: see text]s[Formula: see text] that is 3×109 more intense than the natural one at sea-level: a very competitive flux for SEE testing.