TOKYO - Japanese institutes have developed a Wi-Fi receiver chip able to operate for hours in extreme radiation conditions that could help in decommissioning work at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex.
The chip, capable of withstanding up to 500 kilograys of radiation, will also allow wireless communication technologies and wireless infrastructure to be applied in space missions under extreme conditions, according to the researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo and the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization.
Atsushi Shirane, associate professor in the institute's Advanced Integrated Electronics Research Core, expressed hope that with the chips "wireless remote operation using robots and drones will be promoted, enabling the reduction of worker radiation exposure risk."
While the use of robots in areas inaccessible to humans has expanded significantly during the decommissioning of the nuclear complex that suffered meltdowns triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, most of the robots are controlled through wired connections.
Wired connections limit the simultaneous deployment and maneuverability of robots and generate challenges such as cable management, the team pointed out in its study presented at an international conference in San Francisco in February.
According to the team, intense gamma radiation emitted from fuel debris at the nuclear power plant can lead to electrical leakage and weakened signals in chips.
The researchers reduced the number of transistors to make the receiver more resistant to radiation and replaced some of them with inductors, a passive component that is less sensitive to radiation.
The team also made the remaining transistors bigger because larger devices are less prone to radiation damage.
During performance tests, the chips enabled normal wireless communications even after exposure to radiation dosages more than 1,000 times higher than the limit for semiconductors designed for activities in space, according to the team.
