A NEUTRON-IRRADIATION FACILITY FEATURING CRYOGENIC TEMPERATURES AND DEDICATED TO LARGE HADRON COLLIDER DETECTOR DESIGN

The SARA facility at Grenoble provides the possibility to carry out ne utron irradiation studies at both cryogenic and room temperatures, and permits at the same time to measure on-line the deterioration of the electronic performance of the tested circuits. The cryogenic vessel co nsists of a 10 1 liquid argon cryostat placed behind the neutron sourc e. A TOF technique was used to measure the neutron energy spectrum pro duced by the collision of a 20 MeV deuteron beam on a thick Be target. Alanine and thermoluminescent dosimeters were used to determine the n eutron and photon doses. The results show that the neutron and the gam ma dose components are about 78% and 22%, respectively. The angular di stribution of the dose was also measured.