A Heavy-Ion Beam Monitor Based on 3-D NAND Flash Memories

A heavy-ion beam monitor based on 3-D NAND flash memories was designed and tested with heavy ions at high energy and low linear energy transfer (LET). The capability of measuring fluence, angle, uniformity, and LET of impinging particles is discussed, together with the advantages over SRAM-based implementations. We propose ad hoc algorithms for the extraction of the beam parameters, based only on user-mode commands. A validation of the system using low-LET ionizing particles impinging at different angles is presented. Experimental results show very good efficiency and accuracy.