Radiation Hardened Electronics

Missile seekers, avionics and other sophisticated weaponry rely on innovations in electronics such as faster processors, greater memory capacity and MEMS reconfigurable switches. However, these systems are required to survive and operate in hostileradiation environments.Since 1994 DoD has relied Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) based procurement of electronic components. The goals of this effort have been to buy more commercial products to reduce cost.The problem is that parts acquired through the COTS system are not necessarily radiation hardened. While defense electronics was once 60 to 70 % of the electronics industry in the early 1960's it is now less than a % of the $150 billion market. ClearlyCOTS needs to be used to reduce cost.Therefore innovative techniques to increase the radiation hardness of COTS acquired components without eliminating the cost reductions of COTS are needed. Hardening techniques that change the wafer level design of the component defeat the whole point ofCOTS since there is no longer the economy of scale. We propose a novel technique for use of novel materials for localized, wafer conformable coatings that dramatically improving the radiation hardness without degrading device performance or requiring waferdesign and simultaneously providing hermetic sealing Will enable silicon microcircuit and MEMS deployment in space using radiation hard packaging. Dual use in low cost hermetic packaging of optoelectronic components for telecommunication systems -- EMLs, arrayed waveguides, tunable lasers.