Single-Event Effects in Ground-Level Infrastructure During Extreme Ground-Level Enhancements

摘要

We take an initial look at hard single-event effects (SEEs) in power electronics and static random access memories (SRAMs) during space weather-induced extreme ground-level enhancement (GLE) events. We show that there is a significant risk of failure of silicon power metal & x2013;oxide & x2013;semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) at ground level during a $10imes $ February & x2019;56 GLE. If the devices are not derated, then we find that 21 & x0025; of power MOSFETs and 14 & x0025; of IGBTs are, in the worst case, predicted to fail. The probability of failure increases to 68 & x0025; and 52 & x0025; during a once-in-a-10 000-year GLE for power MOSFETs and IGBTs, respectively. Silicon carbide devices show a lower failure rate by more than an order of magnitude, where only 2.8 & x0025; are predicted to fail during a once-in-a-10 000-year GLE. It is clear that these events could disrupt critical infrastructure if mitigating precautions are not implemented.