DOI 10.1393/ncc/i2015-15184-0 Colloquia: UCANS-V IL NUOVO CIMENTO 38 C (2015) 184 ANEM: The future neutron production target for Single Event Effect studies at LNL G. C. Acosta Urdaneta( 1 )( 4 ), D. Bisello( 1 )( 4 ), J. Esposito( 2 ), P. Mastinu( 2 ), G. Prete( 2 ), L. Silvestrin( 1 )( 4 ) and J. Wyss( 3 ) ( 1 ) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Padova - Padova, Italy ( 2 ) INFN, Sezione di Legnaro - Legnaro (PD), Italy ( 3 ) DICeM, University of Cassino - Cassino (FR), Italy ( 4 ) INFN, Sezione di Padova - Padova, Italy received 22 February 2016 Summary. — The design of a fast-neutron (E > 1 MeV) irradiation facility, devoted to investigating neutron-induced Single Event Effects in microelectronic devices and systems, is under development at the 70 MeV, 0.7 mA SPES proton cyclotron at LNL (Legnaro, Italy). Here we report on the progress in the design of ANEM (Atmospheric-Neutron EMulator): a water-cooled rotating target capa- ble of producing neutrons with an energy spectrum similar to that of the neutrons present at sea level. In ANEM the protons from the cyclotron alternatively im- pinge on two circular sectors of Be and W of different areas; the effective neutron spectrum is a weighted combination of the spectra from the two sectors. Thermal- mechanical Finite Element Analysis calculations of the performance of the ANEM prototype indicate that ANEM can deliver fast neutrons with an atmospheric-like energy spectrum in the 1–65 MeV energy range with a maximum integral flux φn(1–65 MeV) ≃ 10 7 n cm -2 s -1 at 6 m from the target, a very competitive value for Single Event Effects testing. PACS 61.80.Hg – Neutron radiation effects. PACS 61.82.Fk – Radiation effects on semiconductors. PACS 29.25.Dz – Neutron sources. 1. – Introduction A new variable energy high-current proton cyclotron (35–70 MeV; 0.75 mA) is being commissioned at the LNL SPES facility [1] in Legnaro, Italy. The proton beam can also be used to operate a compact NEutron and Proton IRradiation facility (NEPIR) [2]. The original purpose of NEPIR is to study Single Event Effects in electronic devices and systems induced by atmospheric neutrons (neutrons present at flight altitudes and at sea level, generated by cosmic rays), and by solar protons. At present the NEPIR project Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) 1 brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Scientific Open-access Literature Archive and Repository