A radiation shield, called PolyRAD, will be demonstrated that can be fabricated to shape with high dimensional and density tolerances. The fabrication of PolyRAD uses either cast or extrusion molding, depending on the ingredient materials and the targeted density, the latter up to 15.3 g/cc. The choice of ingredient materials is based on thermal and mechanical requirements as well as radiation dose reduction. The anticipated dose reduction for space application is three or more orders of magnitude, depending on the environment In some circumstances, reductions can also be achieved for single event effects. The fabricated shape can be flat or 3-dimensional and the dimensional tolerance can be on the order of 0.001 inches. PolyRAD shield is easily machined if required for cases of extremely complex geometry. The size of the shielding can range from that for an individual miniature microelectronic device to a very large area for an electronic board. PolyRAD is a significant advancement in shielding technology because it can be cost-effectively provided in flat or 3-D form with high dimensional tolerance with a density that is 10 or more percent larger than some known existing conformal shielding and it can be field-applied without difficulty and without special facilities. POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS The targeted application of PolyRAD shield is space flight application of COTS, radiation durable, and radiation hard microelectronics for total incident doses larger than that for which the devices were designed. The devices may be analog or digital, large or small, simple or complex. PolyRAD will be marketed to the user community for simple and easy shielding of either individual or board-level microelectronic devices and it can be vended to device manufacturers as chip housing. The commercial application is as broad and in depth as is the need for reduction of radiation TID in space. Upcoming NASA programs will benefit from PolyRAD by enabling vastly increased use of COTS; this will enable lower-cost, more state-of-the-art mission. Several of the deep space probes such as the mission to Europa must deal with severe total dose threats. Defense satellites, including the next generation GPS and MILSTAR, continue to require TID well above that of most COTS silicon. Pure commercial ventures (Skybridge, FaiSAT, Orbcomm) need drastically reduced costs for economic viability. The total market for microelectronics in space is projected at over $1.3B in 2006
