Radiation-resistant ASICs ensure data & IP integrity

Radiation testing has exhibited strong single event upset and single event latch-up immunity performance with onset Linear Energy Transfers (LETs) in excess of 100MeVcm²/mg for the ASICs and double-bit upset immunity of 40MeVcm²/mg for the dual port SRAM. In addition, a RHBD flip-flop architecture has been introduced, referred to as Self Restoring Logic (SRL). The SRL flip flops have shown hardness resilience to single event effects at frequencies of up to 700MHz.

Principal targets for the RHBD ICs will be high reliability applications, such as space exploration, satellite communication and surveillance, avionics, unmanned aerial vehicles, commercial aircraft, nuclear energy, particle physics research and military equipment.

“The mitigation of radiation effects is becoming an increasingly serious issue as the industry moves to smaller semiconductor process architectures,” explained Dr. Joe Feeley, CEO, ICs LLC. “Legacy RHBD solutions for SEU immunity do not provide adequate protection for high speed circuits, while SRL does. ONSemi is uniquely able to provide a solution to this important problem and enable customers to produce fault-tolerant ASICs for important RT applications.”

Vince Hopkin, Vice President, Military/Aerospace, Digital & Custom Foundry, ONSemi, added: “Thanks to this far-reaching agreement with ICs LLC, ONSemi can support our customers’ demands for ASICs requiring a greater number of logic gates and smaller process technologies while also safeguarding extensively against failures caused by exposure to radiation. When combined with our trusted source status and our capability to provide highly secure development flows, the addition of RHBD products to our portfolio will mean we are extremely well-positioned to serve a broad spectrum of aerospace, military and space programmes, where the need for data and IP integrity is of paramount importance.”