Current Radiation Hardened Integrated Circuits
Iridium Technologies has an initial first-pass design success of a Strategic Radiation-Hardened (>1Mrad) Standard Cell Digital Library, and a Strategic Radiation-Hardened (>1Mrad) Digital Gate Array.
Our first radiation-hardened digital success is being implemented into all our radiation-hardened mixed-signal integrated circuits.
Our customers can now be completely confident in knowing that all of our mixed-signal integrated circuits will have safety and radiation-hardened effectiveness of our proven 1Mrad digital know-how.
Standard Cell Digital Library
Iridium Technologies, LLC's 1Mrad Standard Cell Library has all necessary basic components including: varying drive capacities, various number of inputs, Single-Event-Upset immunity*, and Latch-Up immunity*, which include:
- AND
- NAND
- OR
- NOR
- Inverter
- SRAM (SEU immune*)
- SR-Latch (SEU immune*)
- D-type Flip-Flop (SEU immune*)
- I/O Buffers (Cold-Spared**)
*Simulated Verification, waiting SEU testing. We believe that our expertise at preventing SEU and Latch-Up will be consistent with our proven expertise in making our circuits total-dose immune.
Total-Dose testing completed and verified post 1Mrad, at DMEA, Sacramento.
**Cold-Sparing makes designing with redundancy much easier by saving time, area, cost.
Traditional I/O Buffer designs allow normal signals, occurring on the inputs and outputs of a powered down redundant integrated circuit, to parasitically make their way to the power plane of the powered down redundant integrated circuit, inadvertently powering it up enough to adversely effect unit or system operation.
A brute-force solution to preventing unwanted power-up of a redundant powered down integrated circuit is to use relays to isolate its inputs and outputs from external signals. Unfortunately relays, being mechanical, are one of the weakest links in the electronics chain, and tend to catastrophically fail well before the integrated circuits they are protecting.
"Cold-Spared" Input/Output circuits are specifically designed to NOT allow external signal content to power up a redundant powered down integrated circuit. Meaning you no longer have to worry about designing with relays and having to deal with one of the weakest links in the electronic signal path.
Iridium Technologies, LLC's "Cold-Sparing" I/O have been tested and verified to work for you past 1Mrad of total-dose radiation.
Digital Gate Array
Iridium Technologies, LLC's 1Mrad Digital Gate Array was verified using with the same components as the Radiation-Hardened Standard Cell Library.
The advantage of Iridium's Digital Gate Array is in speed of development and cost. Place and route of digital cells, for a gate array, is accomplished through metalization, and doesn't require all fabrication steps for completion because they are already present. This means faster turn-around times and lower cost.
Iridium Technologies will have varying sizes of gate arrays for different maximum equivalent gates, to suit a variety of technical and economic needs.
Future Radiation Hardened Integrated Circuits
Iridium Technologies, LLC's intension is to leverage success after success in creating our product line. For example now that we have proven 1Mrad digital capability, we will incorporate soon-to-be-proven radiation-hardened analog capability, to produce proven radiation-hardened mixed-signal products.
Near Future:
Iridium Technologies, having a known radiation-hardened digital library to leverage from, has completed, or is nearing completion of design cycles for Radiation-Hardened:
- Comparators (3.3v and 5.0v)
- Analog Multiplexers (3.3v and 5.0v)
- AO, AOI, OA, OAI, XOR, XNOR, MUX, Clock-Driver, Full Adder, Half Adder, and J-K Flip Flop
- Operational Amplifier (3.3v and 5.0v)
Future:
- ADC's
- patent pending Extreme Low Power 8-bit ADC
- DAC's
- 6, 8, 12-bit
Further Out:
- Cryogenic
- ADC's
- DAC's
- Extreme Low Power Sub-Threshold (Weak Inversion) Circuits
Furthest Out:
Radiation-Hardened Cryogenic Circuits operating in Extreme Low Power Sub-Threshold (Weak Inversion).
Imagine working with circuits that are immune to total-dose radiation, single-event-effects, extreme temperatures, consume virtually no power, and operate at super-conduction speeds in deep space.
And our Roadmap doesn't end there ...
