Measurement of IEMP Currents Using Magnetic Thin Film Sensors

Accurate measurement of currents induced in complex electronic circuits by nuclear radiation is difficult due to circuit perturbations by the measurement technique itself, as well as normal instrumentation difficulties. Passive thin ferromagnetic films can be used to record the magnitudes of internal current pulses in the nanosecond region without seriously affecting the circuit being measured. This paper presents a summary of experiments conducted to determine the feasibility of using thin film sensors in radiation environments and the accuracy to which current can be measured in such environments with the thin film sensors.