THERE IS A CONTINUAL DRIVE TO MOVE ELECTRONICS OUT OF THE "WARM BOX" TO THEIR POINT OF USE ON SPACE PLATFOR…

Public award description

THERE IS A CONTINUAL DRIVE TO MOVE ELECTRONICS OUT OF THE "WARM BOX" TO THEIR POINT OF USE ON SPACE PLATFORMS. THIS REQUIRES ELECTRONICS THAT CAN OPERATE RELIABLY OVER A WIDE RANGE OF TEMPERATURES AND IN THE PRESENCE OF RADIATION. THE RANGE OF FUNCTIONS NEEDED AT VARIOUS POINTS ACROSS A GIVEN PLATFORM REQUIRE USE OF DIGITAL, ANALOG AND HIGH-VOLTAGE CIRCUITS, PARTITIONED EITHER INDEPENDENTLY OR IN COMBINATIONS ON THE SAME CHIPS. CURRENTLY, THERE IS NO "COMMON DENOMINATOR" INTEGRATED CIRCUIT PROCESS THAT CAN EFFECTIVELY SUPPORT ALL APPLICATIONS; EXTREME-ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS MUST INCLUDE THE BEST-IN-CLASS TECHNOLOGIES. CIRCUIT DESIGN TECHNIQUES WHICH CAN PRODUCE HARDENED CIRCUITS ACROSS A NUMBER OF TECHNOLOGY NODES ARE ESSENTIAL TO PRODUCING IP THAT CAN BE PORTED AND APPLIED TO THE BEST TECHNOLOGY FOR THE TASK AT HAND. DELAY-INSENSITIVE (DI) ASYNCHRONOUS DIGITAL LOGIC, SUCH AS NULL CONVENTION LOGIC (NCL) IS ONE SUCH TECHNIQUE THAT CAN BE APPLIED TO PRODUCE RADIATION-HARDENED WIDE-TEMPERATURE ELECTRONICS ACROSS MANY PROCESS NODES. DI LOGIC CAN PRODUCE CIRCUITS WITH WIDE-TEMPERATURE, THRESHOLD-INDEPENDENT OPERATION AND HAS SHOWN TREMENDOUS POTENTIAL FOR RADIATION-HARDNESS THROUGH USE OF ITS DUAL-RAIL ENCODING SCHEME. DI LOGIC HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY DEMONSTRATED IN DIGITAL AND MIXED-SIGNAL APPLICATIONS DOWN TO 130NM IN BULK SILICON AND SIGE PROCESSES OVER A WIDE RANGE OF TEMPERATURE. AN OPPORTUNITY THUS EXISTS TO APPLY THE ASYNCHRONOUS DI APPROACH TO OTHER SPACE-APPLICABLE TECHNOLOGIES WHERE RELIABLE DIGITAL PROCESSING NEEDED, INCLUDING SOI FOR HIGH-VOLTAGE PROCESSES FOR POWER PROCESSING AND CONDITIONING. PROPOSED IS THE DESIGN OF A WIDE-TEMPERATURE WIDE-VOLTAGE RANGE RS-485 INTERFACE SUITABLE FOR POWER AND ACTUATOR CONTROL APPLICATIONS BUILT USING DI-NCL GATES AND WIDE-TEMPERATURE DESIGN TECHNIQUES IN A HIGH-POWER RADIATION-HARD PROCESS.