Ultrafast high-energy pulsed electron beams can provide deep penetration and variable linear energy transfers by controlling the characteristics of the electron bunch, both of which currently oversubscribed heavy ion facilities cannot provide. Early experiments at the UCLA PEGASUS beamline (~3 MeV) with ~1 ps electron bunches and a 50 μm spot size yielded charge collection transients that were not correlated well with standard heavy-ion data. Sub-micron focusing of the beam would allow for the electron bunch to mimic ion tracks by saturating the charge collection in a small cross-sectional area while simultaneously providing high spatial resolution to allow for the targeted testing of microelectronic components. Using a 10 μm collimator and strong lens, current experiments are planned at UCLA to characterize standard photodiodes with smaller spot sizes to achieve stronger correlations with the heavy-ion data.

Ultrafast high-energy pulsed electron beams can provide deep penetration and variable linear energy transfers for testing microelectronics for radiation-induced single-event effects. Early experiments at the UCLA PEGASUS beamline (3 MeV) with 1 ps electron bunches and a 50 $\mu$m spot size yielded charge collection transients that are compared with reference heavy ion data. Sub-micron focusing of the beam would allow for the electron bunch to better mimic ion tracks by saturating the charge collection in a small cross-sectional area while simultaneously providing high spatial resolution to allow for the targeted testing of microelectronic components. Using micron-scale collimators and strong lenses, current experiments are planned at UCLA to achieve smaller spot sizes in pursuit of stronger correlations with heavy-ion data.