The main challenge that RADNEXT addresses is the access to accelerator and reactor infrastructure for advancing in the research of radiation effects on electronics. Such access is typically limited by the fact that large accelerator and reactor facilities are mainly devoted to research and applications in high-energy, nuclear and medical physics, amongst others. Therefore, with radiation effects being only an ancillary activity, meeting the increasing beam time demand of the radiation effects community is troublesome. Thus, the key motivation behind the RADNEXT project is that of guaranteeing a sustained and harmonized access to beam facilities for radiation effects users.
As an outcome of RADNEXT, our overall understanding of radiation effects on electronics is improved, which in turn enables the use of cutting edge microelectronic and photonic technologies in high reliability applications such as space, transport, IT infrastructure and high-energy physics and medical accelerators. With a society that increasingly relies on technology, the possibility of benefiting from the use of semiconductors of the most advanced level in applications with more demanding reliability requirements than consumer electronics opens the door to solutions of unprecedented societal benefit, such as (just to mention an example) artificial intelligence on-board satellite capacity for Earth observation activities.
In addition to ensuring a broad, sustained and diversified accelerator facility access for radiation effects testing, RADNEXT also addresses the challenge of relaxing the entry barrier to this multidisciplinary field, for research teams and companies that face this increasing need for the first (or one of the first) time. Indeed, an important number of research teams and companies are confronted with the challenge of needing to qualify electronics against radiation, and do not have sufficient knowledge and experience to independently tackle the need. In this sense, RADNEXT aims at providing a centralized entry point to the otherwise potentially overwhelming field of radiation effects procedures and facilities.
This point is addressed within RADNEXT both through the development of tools and definitions of guidelines for electronics testing applications and users, as well as through direct technical support to teams and companies that are newcomers in the radiation effects discipline, and/or that need specific guidance related to a particularly complex or demanding radiation effects research need. Likewise, RADNEXT strives at improving the awareness and knowledge of radiation effects across the various application domains to which it is related, notably through training and dissemination material, for instance in the form of online webinars. Moreover, the project has been very active with its outreach activities, mainly through exhibitor booths at conferences, as well as social media.
