Ultrashort pulsed laser tools for testing of semiconductor elements hardness to single event effects, caused by cosmic heavy charged particles

The installations for laser testing of microelectronic elements (first of all - integrated circuits) of devices for space applications for hardness to local radiation effects from heavy charged particles are presented. The possibility of a focused pulsed laser radiation application to the study of local radiation effects, caused by single heavy charged particles, is explained. The fundamentals of an approach to the construction of test sets, based on the picosecond and femtosecond lasers and systems for focusing their radiation, are considered. The main technical requirements for the basic modules of sets for laser testing (laser wavelength and pulse duration and repetition rate, spatial beam parameters and minimal spot size, speed of object movement and so on) are substantiated. All worked out sets have a full-featured software for the operational management of all modules of the laser test facility, including the positioning of the object, to provide feedback from the measurement results of the reaction of the object on the laser excitation. The parameters of developed laser hardware and software systems and their foreign counterparts are compared. Further improvement directions for laser testing tools are briefly outlined. The discussion is also presented of described hardware technical and operational characteristics, allowing to use it for a variety of scientific research studies, requiring selective (with submicron spatial resolution) object excitation by ultrashort laser pulses and recording responses to this effect with the exact timing of the moment of excitation, as well as to perform a variety of high precision technological operations.