Thermal Neutron Absorption in Printed Circuit Boards

Measurements and simulations of thermal neutron attenuation by printed circuit boards (PCBs) are compared. Attenuation coefficients in typical epoxy-resin/glass-fiber substrate material can be as high as 2 cm −1 , corresponding to 27% attenuation by 1.6 mm of the substrate. Attenuation is attributed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE transactions on nuclear science Vol. 68; no. 4; pp. 463 - 469
Main Authors Platt, Simon P., August, Shaun, MacLeod, Michael, Anderson, Michael J., Cheneler, David, Monk, Stephen D.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York IEEE 01.04.2021
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
Absorption
Attenuation
Attenuation coefficients
Boron
Circuit boards
Detectors
Glass fiber reinforced plastics
Glass substrates
Glass-epoxy composites
Neutron absorption
Neutron counters
Neutron scattering
Neutrons
Printed circuit boards
Printed circuits
reactor instrumentation
Resins
Substrates
Thermal neutrons
Thermal simulation
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Summary:Measurements and simulations of thermal neutron attenuation by printed circuit boards (PCBs) are compared. Attenuation coefficients in typical epoxy-resin/glass-fiber substrate material can be as high as 2 cm −1 , corresponding to 27% attenuation by 1.6 mm of the substrate. Attenuation is attributed to neutron scattering off hydrogen in the resin acting in synergy with absorption by boron in the glass; this effect is substantially greater than that estimated from absorption by boron alone. Design of thermal neutron detector assemblies should take this attenuation into account and may require board thickness to be minimized or specialized substrate materials to be used.
ISSN:0018-9499
1558-1578
DOI:10.1109/TNS.2021.3060864