Ways of providing radiation resistance of magnetic field semiconductor sensors

Hall magnetic field sensors resistant to hard ionizing irradiation are bein g developed for operation under the radiation conditions of space and in ch arged particle accelerators. Radiation resistance of the sensors is first d etermined by the properties of semiconductor materials of sensitive element s; we have used microcrystals and thin layers of Ill-V semiconductors. Appl ying complex doping by rare-earth elements and isovalent impurities in cert ain proportions, we have obtained magnetic field sensors resistant to irrad iation by fast neutrons and gamma -quanta. Tests of their radiation resista nce were carried out at IBR-2 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research ( Dubna). When exposed to neutrons with E=0.1-13MeV and intensity of 10(10)n cm(-2)s(-1), the main parameter of the sensors-their sensitivity to magneti c fields-changes by no more than 0.1% up to fluences of 10(14) n cm(-2). Fu rther improvement of radiation resistance of sensor materials is expected b y means of a combination of metallurgical methods of complex doping with th e technology of radiation modification, which includes an interchanging of nuclear doping and fast neutron irradiation with thermoprocessing cycles. A special magnetometric system is to be developed in which the main element is the functionally integrated magnetometric transducer consisting of a sem iconductor Hall microgenerator and a copper microsolenoid, which forms the actuating field around the microgenerator. The application of such a magnet ometric system with radiation resistant magnetic field sensors will provide magnetic field measurements with an accuracy of 0.1% under hard radiation conditions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.