Radiation Mitigation Methods for Reprogrammable FPGA

NASA has been tasked to develop new and advanced capabilities to support both future manned and robotic missions to the lunar and Martian surfaces. It is the purpose of this program to develop advanced avionics, software, and information technologies for exploration missions. In particular, NASA is concerned with the extreme radiation present on the lunar surface, Martian surface, and in deep space. Spacecraft electronics will need to be radiation hardened against a TID of 100 krads (Si) or more and provide SEL immunity of 100 MeV cm2/mg or greater. Furthermore, electronics in these environments are also subjected to multiple thermal-cycling and wide temperature ranges. Our innovation provides solutions for the mitigation of radiation effects on reprogrammable SRAM-based FPGA processor elements through the use of an advanced foundry process combined with innovative and RHBD methods to mitigate total ionizing dose and provide SEL immunity, and SEU tolerance. These techniques will be utilized to develop a prototype of radiation hardened, reprogrammable FPGA that will be fabricated and tested, suitable for consideration in future NASA Flagship programs.