In October 2021, INETEC - Institute for Nuclear Technology started a new project under the title “Magic Lancer II“ in cooperation with Magics Technologies supported by the Project RIMA (Robotics for Inspection and Maintenance) which is financed by the Horizon 2020 European Union initiative. For more than 30 years, INETEC has been producing robotic systems, instruments, probes and software for the nuclear and aerospace industry as well as medicine, whereas Magics Technologies specializes in developing chips for usage under extreme conditions such as space and nuclear power plants.
The goals of the project were development and implementation of electronics resistant to large doses of radioactivity and the comparison of the current technological solutions when it comes to radiation resistance. The research included two main parts. The first was LANCER II, which is a manipulator that represents a new generation of mobile and light robotic systems developed at INETEC for remote underwater non-destructive testing of a reactor pressure vessel. The second were rad-hard microchips (radiation resistant microchips) developed by Magics. The INETEC team developed a control board with rad-hard components based on a modular printed circuit board (PCB). The rad-hard board was developed in cooperation with Magics Technologies and its expected radiation resistance equals to 1 MGy of the accumulated dose. Both the standard and the rad-hard design were tested at VF Nuclear, where ionising radiation monitoring devices are produced.
The rad-hard board did not show any sign of dysfunction after accumulating the dosage equal to 600 Gy, while the standard components of the modular PCB ceased to function at different levels of accumulated radiation dose. Although certain standard components of the modular PCB did not endure the dosage level, which was expected, now we know what the maximum radiation dosage they can receive is. Thanks to this project, INETEC has gathered relevant data for the selection of electronic components that work in radioactive environments. Moreover, a solution for work under extreme conditions such as space exploration has also been developed. All this enables us to take a step forward in increasing quality and reliability of INETEC’s products.