Polyethylene Outgassing Study for MEMS Nuclear Radiation Sensor

In this paper, the out-gassing from PolyEthylene (PE) film is studied under nuclear irradiation for the design and fabrication of passive MEMS dosimeters. The fabrication of sensor needs high temperature process that leads to specific constraints on the PE film. Radiation chemical yield of hydrogen production (GH2) from PE under gamma irradiation is verified by mass spectroscopy after temperature annealing in vacuum up to 400 °C. Prototypes are fabricated to validate the fabrication of the sensor and then irradiated with high energy gamma radiation (with dose of 20 kGy). Measurements of membrane deflections after irradiation validate the GH2 factor, showing low pollution level of PE during sensor fabrication.