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Surface charging and dose monitor on geosynchronous orbit satellite

  • Yuzhan Zheng EMAIL logo , Qingxiang Zhang , Hongwen Xiang , Shuai Yao , Yi Zheng and Lin Quan
Published/Copyright: April 1, 2023
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Open Astronomy
From the journal Open Astronomy Volume 32 Issue 1

Abstract

Based on the typical dielectric materials and devices of satellite, a surface charging and dose monitor (SCAD) was developed to measure the surface charging voltage, current, and dose under different shielding depths. The SCAD has been successfully launched into orbit on June 23, 2020. The measurement results on orbit show that the SCAD works normally, and the data of SCAD are reasonable. The results show that the radiation dose rate on geosynchronous orbit is about 0.4 mrad(Si)/s, and the maximum charging voltage is about −800 V during the initial measuring period. The charging voltage is consistent with the trends of geomagnetic disturbance Kp index. The on-orbit data provide basic data on surface charging and discharging effect and total dose effect, supporting the safe and reliable operation of the satellite.

Keywords: surface charging voltage; surface charging current; dose monitor

1 Introduction

The satellites on geosynchronous orbit (GEO) would be immersed in space plasma with certain energy and density in orbit, which changes dramatically during the magnetic storm or geomagnetic substorm. A large number of hot plasmas would be injected into GEO orbit during this event. The energy of the plasma is about tens of keV. The interaction between these hot plasma and satellite surface materials will lead to the surface charging and discharge effect of the satellite. The surface charging and discharging effect was discovered in the 1970s (Garrett 1981, Lreach and Alexander 1995, Lam et al. 2012), involving charging and discharging processes. Surface charging is a comprehensive result of charge deposition of electron and photoelectron emission generated by the interaction between outer surface materials of the satellite and space plasma. The charging process would continue until the positive and negative current of charging reaches equilibrium, and then, the potential will not increase at this time. The surface discharging of satellite is usually caused by the relative potential that is voltage. When the charging voltage rises to a certain value, electrostatic discharge (ESD) would occur in the form of arcing and breakdown. During this process, the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) emitted by the ESD would degrade or damage the solar cell array and sensitive electronic devices or electrical equipment, resulting in the incorrect manipulation or damage of sensitive electronic components on board. The EMP can lead to the satellite failures in worst cases (Yu 2012, Garret 2013). According to the statistical database of NASA, the proportion of failures caused by surface charging and discharging effect is as high as 20.1%, among 299 failures caused by space environment (Koons et al. 1998). These failures are dependent on the space environment events (Quan et al. 2022). The charging voltage of surface dielectric materials is the key parameter for the satellites on orbit (Olsen et al. 1981, Garrett and Whittlesey 2000).

GEO satellites on orbit will not only suffer from surface charging and discharging effect but also inevitably suffer from the bombardment of high-energy charged particles in the earth’s trapped belt, which can deposit energy in electronic components and materials, affecting their performances. The electronic components and materials are located in different positions in the satellite, with different shielding depths. Therefore, the cumulative dose data under different shielding depths can provide the basic data for the health status of electronic equipment.

Based on the typical dielectric materials of the satellite, the surface charging and dose monitor (SCAD) has been developed to obtain the surface charging state and total dose on GEO orbit.

2 Brief introduction to SCAD

The SCAD has a double-layer structure. The upper layer is the sensor part and the lower layer is the circuit part, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Double-layer structure of SCAD. (a) Structure diagram and (b) 3D structure.
Figure 1

Double-layer structure of SCAD. (a) Structure diagram and (b) 3D structure.

Sensors of the total dose, surface charging voltage, surface charging current, and temperature are integrated into the sensor layer. The circuit layer includes power supply circuit and signal processing unit. The total dose sensor can measure the ionizing radiation dose under different shielding depths, and the equivalent aluminum shielding depths outside the dose sensor are 0, 1, 2, and 5 mm, respectively.

2.1 Surface charging sensor

The charging sensor includes a surface charging voltage sensor and a charging current sensor. The area of both sensors is 10 cm2. Secondary electron emission coefficient and the performance stability of the sensor materials need to be considered in the design of surface charging voltage sensor. The surface of the voltage sensor is a single-layer polyimide film, which is connected with the surface of the lower layer of the voltage sensor. When the polyimide film is charging by the hot plasma, the surface voltage of the film is measured through the differential voltage network. The measurement schematic diagram of surface voltage is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Schematic diagram of surface charging voltage measurement.
Figure 2

Schematic diagram of surface charging voltage measurement.

As seen in Figure 2, C S is the equivalent capacitance formed by polyimide film and aluminum plate of the sensor, C r is the partial voltage capacitance, C r is determined by C S and measuring range, and R is the equivalent input resistance of the measuring circuit. It can be seen from the equivalent circuit that V out has different responses that can be seen in Eq. (1).

(1) C s d d t ( V s ( t ) − V out ( t ) ) = V out R + C r d d t V out

(2) V s ( t ) = C r + C s C s V out + 1 t R C s ∫ o V out d t

The surface voltage sensor is grounded through the divided capacitor C r, and its surface voltage is connected to the electronic circuit after being divided by C S and C r, as shown in Eq. (2). The partial voltage capacitor C r is a metalized polyphenylene sulfide capacitor with excellent performance of high temperature and long-term stability and large insulation resistance.

The surface charging current sensor uses a metal aluminum plate as a collector of electrons with a certain energy in space plasma. The metal aluminum plate is bombarded by hot plasma in space and generates current. The current depends on the external space charging plasma environment. The charging current measured on the aluminum plate can indicate the changes in the external charging environment. The principle diagram of surface charging current measurement is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 Schematic diagram of surface charging current measurement.
Figure 3

Schematic diagram of surface charging current measurement.

2.2 Total dose sensor

Radiation field effect transistor (RadFET) is used as a total dose sensor, which is often used in total ionizing dose monitoring (Holmes-Siedle et al. 2014, Bhat et al. 2005, Poole et al. 2022). RadFET is a p-channel metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) with high sensitivity. RadFETs are used in the SCAD, which is internally composed of two 300/50 pMOSFETs, two 690/15 pMOSFETs, and one diode. The sensor is a double in-line ceramic package, and the top cover is kovar alloy. The internal structure of the total dose sensor is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 Internal structure of RADFET.
Figure 4

Internal structure of RADFET.

The radiation-induced positive trapped charges in the SiO2 region of p-channel MOSFET gate would follow a certain functional relationship with the ionizing radiation dose, and the positive charges will lead to the threshold voltage drift of the RadFET. The sensor is based on this to measure the dose of ionizing radiation. The threshold voltage drift of RadFET and the cumulative radiation dose D approximately obey the following functional relationship, which can be written as

(3) Δ V th = a × D b ,

where a and b represent the coefficients. The radiation sensitivity of dose sensor is related to the thickness of oxide layer, bias, leakage current, working temperature, and other factors.

2.3 Temperature sensor

Since ionizing radiation dose is affected by temperature, SCAD also includes a temperature sensor. The thermistor is selected as the temperature sensor. To obtain the typical temperature of the sensor layer, the thermistor is pasted on the center of the upper cover plate of the monitor to measure the temperature of the upper cover plate of the monitor.

2.4 Electronic circuit

The charging current of space plasma is very small (on the order of picoampere), and it can reach the order of nA during the geomagnetic storm and the geomagnetic substorm (Ryden et al. 2015). The feedback resistor with a high-resistance value shall be used for weak current signal amplification, and the operational amplifier with high-input resistance and very low bias current shall be selected to prevent the noise of bias current from drowning the weak charging current signal and its temperature drift, which can affect the stability of output zero point.

The surface voltage signal is divided by the sensor through the capacitor. The output of the charging voltage signal can be obtained by the high-input impedance follower, converting the high-resistance signal into low-resistance output, after magnification and filtering through the later-stage circuit. It can be seen in Figure 5 (Zheng et al. 2021).

Figure 5 Schematic diagram of the signal processing circuit of surface charged sensor.
Figure 5

Schematic diagram of the signal processing circuit of surface charged sensor.

3 Preliminary monitoring results and discussion

On June 23, 2020, the SCAD lifted off with the GEO satellite and successfully deployed on the GEO orbit. On August 31, 2020, and February 4, 2021, it obtained data with more than 2 h (about 8,000 s), respectively, which can evaluate whether SCAD works abnormally on orbit. The evaluation has been completed on February 17, 2021, and then, the long-term measurement mode is applied.

3.1 SCAD monitor status evaluation

The evaluation is based on the monitor data started at 15:07 on August 31, 2020. The measurement took more than 8,000 s. Figure 6 is the power and temperature telemetry value of SCAD. It can be seen from Figure 6 that the telemetry value of +12 V is 4.90 V and that of −12 V is 1.65 V during the test. Therefore, the telemetry value of positive and negative 12 V power supply is stable.

Figure 6 The telemetry value of SCAD: (a) power telemetry and (b) temperature telemetry.
Figure 6

The telemetry value of SCAD: (a) power telemetry and (b) temperature telemetry.

Figure 6b is the temperature telemetry value obtained from SCAD. It can be seen that the temperature telemetry value is between 5 and 10℃. The temperature drop is the influence of surrounding equipment.

Figure 7 shows the measurement results of four total dose sensors and charging sensors of SACD. From the measurement results, the voltage values of the four dose sensors were between 0.01 and 0.9 V after 2 months of irradiation on orbit by the end of August, indicating 0.5–7 krad(Si). The dose of the unshielded dose sensor is about 7 krad(Si). According to the 58 days on aboard, the dose rate of GEO orbit is about 1.4 mrad(Si)/s.

Figure 7 Results of the monitor on GEO orbit: (a) four channels of total dose and (b) surface charging.
Figure 7

Results of the monitor on GEO orbit: (a) four channels of total dose and (b) surface charging.

Figure 7b shows the measurement results of surface current and voltage sensors. It can be seen that the maximum value of surface charging voltage is −28 V, the maximum value of surface charging current density is −0.15 nA/cm2, and the change trend of voltage and current measurement results is consistent. When the surface charging current increases (in the negative direction), the surface voltage would also increase accordingly, indicating that more electrons are deposited on the sensor at this time, which can result in the increase of surface voltage. Moreover, there is a time interval of about 1,000 s between the peak current and voltage of surface charging.

As seen in Figures 6 and 7, the SCAD monitor works normally on orbit and the test data are effective.

3.2 Monitoring results and discussion

Figure 8 shows the variation in ionizing radiation dose with time under different shielding depths. During the period from February 17 to March 21, 2021, the monitor carried out continuous measurement, and the dose data of four dose sensors are shown in Figure 8a.

Figure 8 Radiation dose measurement results on aboard: (a) total dose of four dose sensors and (b) dose versus time.
Figure 8

Radiation dose measurement results on aboard: (a) total dose of four dose sensors and (b) dose versus time.

The total ionizing dose on orbit is cumulative and has increased with the time on orbit. On March 21, the dose with unshielded dose sensor was about 19.2 krad(Si). During this measurement period, the total dose increased by 1 krad(Si), and the calculated dose rate on orbit is about 0.4 mrad(Si)/s, which is in the same range as the GEO orbital dose rate that was reported (Bogorad et al. 2010).

Figure 8b also shows the variation in radiation dose with time since June 23, 2020. There was a certain higher dose at the end of August, which was caused by the large cumulative dose when the monitor crossing the earth’s trapped belts. From February 17 to March 21, the dose measured by the SCAD changes linearly with time, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9 Linear relationship between dose and time from February 17 to March 21.
Figure 9

Linear relationship between dose and time from February 17 to March 21.

The four total dose sensors of the monitor measure the ionizing radiation dose under different shielding depths. Four radiation dose monitoring data are expressed in 0, 1, 2, and 5 mm. With the increase in shielding depth, the dose decreases exponentially, as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10 Relationship between radiation dose and shielding depths.
Figure 10

Relationship between radiation dose and shielding depths.

The surface charging data are instantaneous, which is related to the space hot plasma density on the orbit at that time. The relationship between on-orbit monitoring data of surface charging voltage and charging current over time is shown in Figure 11. The time in this figure is local time in the GEO satellite. On March 3, the maximum surface charging voltage reached about −800 V. In other time periods, large charging voltage also occurs, mainly from February 19 to February 27, from March 1 to March 5, and from March 13 to March 15. The higher charging voltage in these time periods may be due to the presence of more hot plasma at the orbital position at this time.

Figure 11 Surface charging data on orbit: (a) surface charging voltage and (b) surface charging current.
Figure 11

Surface charging data on orbit: (a) surface charging voltage and (b) surface charging current.

Figure 11b shows the change trend of surface charging current, in which there are many spikes, and the highest charging current density is −0.25 nA/cm2. Some of these current spikes can correspond to voltage spikes, while others do not. It shows that there is electronic interference above 50 keV on the surface charging current sensor at this time, indicating that the electron energy collected by the current sensor is wider. It needs to be further analyzed in combination with the measured data of electron fluxes.

It can also be seen from Figure 11 that at some time, the charging sensor detects positive charging current and charging voltage, which may be caused by the occurrence of secondary electrons at this moment.

Figure 12 shows the relationship between surface charging voltage and geomagnetic disturbance index Kp. It can be seen that strong geomagnetic disturbances occur when the surface charging voltage is large, and the two correspond well. Kp index changes greatly from March 1 to March 3, the maximum Kp index increased to 6, which represented the occurrence of a small magnetic storm, and the corresponding surface charging voltage was about −800 V. This indicates that the injection of hot plasma at GEO orbit at this time, and the duration of small magnetic storm was short, so there was no higher surface charging.

Figure 12 Surface charging voltage and Kp index.
Figure 12

Surface charging voltage and Kp index.

4 Conclusions

The SCAD realizes the integrated measurement of the ionizing radiation dose of different shielding thicknesses and surface charging voltage/current based on typical satellite dielectric materials. On June 23, 2020, the monitor was located on the GEO orbit and successfully started up for measurement. According to the short-term measurement data on August 31, 2020, the monitor works normally on orbit, and the data of surface electrification and total dose monitor are reasonable. The monitoring results from February 17 to March 17, 2021, can be concluded as follows: (i) the ionizing radiation dose has been increasing since entering orbit, and the total cumulative dose of the outermost layer has reached 19.2 krad(Si). The attenuation trend of the four-way radiation dose is in line with the expectation: (ii) the radiation dose measured by the monitor changes linearly with time, and the orbital radiation dose rate is about 0.4 mrad (Si)/s, which is in the same range as the GEO orbital dose rate reported abroad; (iii) the monitoring information of surface charging and current is rich, and the maximum surface charging voltage reaches about −800 V. The time period of high surface voltage is in good agreement with the variation trends of Kp index of geomagnetic disturbance.

The surface charging and total dose data obtained by SCAD on the GEO orbit would provide space environment effect status, which can support the safety and operation of the satellite on orbit.

  1. Funding information: The authors state no funding involved.

  2. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.

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Received: 2022-07-14
Revised: 2022-10-31
Accepted: 2022-10-31
Published Online: 2023-04-01

© 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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https://doi.org/10.1515/astro-2022-0211
Keywords for this article
surface charging voltage; surface charging current; dose monitor
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BY 4.0

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