JD'S Memes

Today's technological revolution in space, ranging from long-term harsh-environment military space applications to commercial space telecommunications and internet access, is driving new trends in electronics components that can withstand varying levels of radiation.

Radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant electronics are designed or upscreen-tested to withstand the effects of ionizing radiation such as gamma rays and cosmic rays, which can disrupt or damage electronic circuits. These components are crucial not only for orbital space, but also for space exploration, nuclear power plants, and particle accelerators.

Radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant electronics typically share several different traits, such as shielding, redundance, rad-hard-by-design components, and testing and upscreening.

Shielding made from materials like lead, tungsten, or other heavy metals can protect sensitive components from radiation, while redundant systems and circuits often are built into radiation-hardened electronics to ensure continued operation even if parts of the system suffer disruption or damage from radiation.

Some space applications -- especially those in high-Earth orbits for long-duration military missions, require components that are specially manufactured for heavy resistance to radiation-induced damage. This can involve different materials or designs compared to commercial-grade components, which can be time-consuming and very expensive to design. Rad-hard-by-design electronics typically are more expensive than commercial-grade components because of the specialized design, manufacturing, and materials involved.

Extensive testing under simulated radiation can help verify the performance and reliability not only of radiation-hardened electronics, but also of commercial-grade parts that can be designed into space systems.

When designing or specifying radiation-hardened or radiation-tolerant parts for space, systems designers must consider factors like total ionizing dose (TID), single-event effects (SEE), and displacement damage dose (DDD) to make electronic components that play a vital role in ensuring the reliability and functionality of electronic systems in harsh radiation environments.

Orbiting satellites for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and communications make up the bulk of today's space electronics market, with narrow but important slivers of the market going to long-term military missions, systems designed to operate through nuclear explosions, and for land-based nuclear power monitoring and control.
Click to expand...
Back In The Late 1980s and Early 1990s, I was a developer for Intel silicon.

Tasked with finding a "Second Source" for "Rad Hard" Chips.

Intel didn't see any future in this program.

No Joy, I quit Looking.

 
Northrop Grumman won an $18.1 million contract in April, and RadiaBeam won a $10.6 million for Advanced Sources for Single-event Effect Radiation Testing (ASSERT) project of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va. The 4.5-year ASSERT program seeks develop new capabilities for SEE testing of 3D heterogeneously integrated (3DHI) electronic components and circuits, and transform today's radiation-hardened electronics design process to enable rapid deployment of next-generation electronics for space and nuclear warfare applications.

Goals for Northrop Grumman and RadiaBeam include generating energetic particles with penetration as deep as 5 millimeters in silicon with high-radiation-relevant linear energy transfers and beam diameters of less than 0.2 microns. Northrop Grumman and RadiaBeam engineers will take-on one ASSERT program technical area for 3DHI radiation-hardened technologies which addresses two technical challenges: deep penetration depths in 3DHI components with space-radiation linear energy transfers; and charge tracks with fine spatial resolution. Proposals must respond to both technical challenges.

Radiation effects threaten electronic systems from three main natural sources: galactic cosmic rays; charged particles trapped by planetary magnetic fields; and solar particle events.

Emerging advanced electronics are complex and integrated than previous generations, and can combine digital, analog, and optical functions using 3D topologies and several material types. 3D components are expected to reach several millimeters in vertical extent with a complexity and level of integration that will make it difficult, if not impossible, to de-package and disaggregate into parts to perform radiation testing using current heavy-ion sources.

SEE testing of integrated components will require an irradiation source that provides a combination of multi-millimeter penetration depths, space-radiation-relevant linear energy transfers, and fine spatial resolution and control to provide the linear and angular precision necessary to probe sensitive areas and to isolate faults.

Current SEE testing is unable to meet all of these requirements simultaneously, necessitating new sources to qualify next-generation microelectronics for nuclear and space applications that require high reliability in radiation environments.

The process of testing with ion beams is slow and laborious, and problems worsen with the increasing complexity of electronics. As a result, ASSERT sources must be compact and cost-effective so they can be incorporated into the development process.

In this way, radiation qualification will be integrated throughout the design and fabrication flow, with ASSERT sources providing the means to identify radiation design flaws rapidly and to facilitate swift correction and design optimizations. A key program goal is to reduce the time from design to radiation-qualified component by a factor of 10. DARPA researchers particularly are interested in technologies like short-pulse relativistic electron beams and ultrashort pulse X-rays.

 
(FYI) Yes, I'm Still On The Mailing List For This Stuff.

Last fall spacecraft experts at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., announced a $35 million contract to Western Digital Corp. in San Jose, Calif., next-generation radiation-hardened non-volatile memory chips as part of the Advanced Next Generation Strategic Radiation hardened Memory (ANGSTRM) project.

ANGSTRM seeks to develop a strategic rad-hard non-volatile memory device with near-commercial state-of-the-art performance by using advanced packaging and radiation-hardening techniques with state-of-the-art commercial technology for space and strategic systems. The Air Force Research lab awarded the contract on behalf of the U.S. Space Force.

Advancing strategic rad-hard non-volatile memory technologies is critical to support strategic missiles, missile defense, and military space systems, researchers say. Non-volatile memory devices retain their data even when they lose power.

Ideally, the military would have access to non-volatile memories with the performance and density of commercial state-of-the-art devices; unfortunately today's commercial technologies are not able to withstand the radiation and thermal environments where the military deploys systems. Many military systems, moreover, must use trusted on-shore electronics manufacturing.

The U.S. Space Force researchers are interested in combining radiation hardening to state-of-the-art CMOS and memory technologies to scale density beyond the levels of a single chip, and create qualified strategic rad-hard non-volatile memory for use across military space and strategic systems.

Researchers want Western Digital to develop rad-hard memories with monolithic memory densities of 4 to 16 gigabits, and with multichip module densities of 32 to 128 gigabits that will last without refresh for 10 to 15 years. These memory devices should operate with no more than 10 milliwatts of power, and operate in temperatures from -40 to 125 degrees Celsius, and eventually down to temperatures of -55 C.

Resistance to total-ionizing-dose radiation should be as low as 300 kilorads, and as high as 1,000 kilorads, with fewer than 10 to 12 single-event upset errors per bit day. Single-event latchup resistance should be more than 72 MeV-Cm2/mg, with single-event gate and dielectric rupture of 72 to 100 MeV-Cm2/mg.

Ultimately, the ANGSTRM project seeks to develop a full-scale prototype device, provide device characterization and radiation test reports, and provide a qualification plan with a path to achieve a QML-standard product.

Screenshot 2024-07-08 at 06-35-30 radiation-hardened electronics for space Military Aerospace.png

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top