Ask HN: Why don't transistors in microchips fail?

Re:Ask HN: Why don't transistors in microchips fail? by fezz on Thursday July 09, 2015 @05:46PM (#9860918)

On CCD/CMOS sensors it can happen enough to be visible as dead columns or pixels. Pixels can be calibrated out.

Most notably, gamma rays killing columns was the suspected cause of dead columns while filming Superman a few years back. As a result, cameras were shipped by ship rather than air to minimize this happening ( a bit of a reactionary tale to this particular incident and not generally what happens).

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Re:Ask HN: Why don't transistors in microchips fail? by fezz on Thursday July 09, 2015 @08:21PM (#9861609)

Forgot to mention... in talking with NASA about deploying cameras on the space station, the issue being able to fix pixel death by gamma ray is more relevant. Water is apparently one defense against it but not so practical. How much water would you need?

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Re:Ask HN: Why don't transistors in microchips fail? by TheLoneWolfling on Friday July 10, 2015 @09:18AM (#9863738)

Water has a halving thickness of ~18cm for gamma rays. So a fair bit.

Unfortunately, most other things are also of the same order of magnitude of ~20g/cm^2 - with gamma rays the single most important thing is just "how much mass is in the way". Which is exactly what you don't want.

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