Prognostic for Process-Related Integrated Circuits (IC)

Avionics suppliers are necessarily turning to Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) electronic components and subsystems for three main reasons: the lack of military qualified parts, to take advantage of the high-performance components available in the COTS market, and according to Ralph Lachenmaier, the JSF program office's ICP and common components lead, “COTS reduces development risk and ensures an upgrade path.” Ridgetop will develop a dedicated integrated circuit containing sensitive prognostic monitors that can be used with COTS devices on circuit boards to permit detection of impending failures. The integration of electronic prognostic health management (ePHM) capabilities required to accomplish this task also provides the potential to reduce the total cost of ownership and increase the mission capable rate of complex electronic systems, by providing estimates of remaining life and corresponding uncertainty.BENEFITS: The prognostics market is represented by military and commercial firms that have critical needs for advanced warning of problems and associated recovery methods. Ridgetop’s initial thrust for commercialization of the technology has been through the application of prognostics on critical processing systems supporting missiles. Ridgetop has established good working relationships with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and Raytheon Missile Systems. Both firms have expressed a strong interest in providing technology insertion opportunities for Ridgetop. Ridgetop has also worked with firms such as Honeywell and Boeing on joint proposals addressing critical system designs for commercial and military aircraft.