HardSIL™
Electronics for several high-reliability (Hi-Rel) industries currently require extra design consideration to mitigate the detrimental effects of harsh environments. Existing mitigation approaches such as Harden By Design (HBD) or extensive shielding of COTS parts necessitate substantial penalties in circuit size, circuit performance, power consumption, or mass.
Incorporating the patented HardSIL™ technology into leading edge ICs, SST has successfully demonstrated superior hardening performance in a number of high-density memory and DSPs. Unlike the HBD or shielding of COTS approaches, HardSIL™ has no trade-offs or compromises and delivers much greater immunity to the effects of harsh environments. As a result, best-in-world hardened solutions are now available for designers to produce dramatically more robust products in reduced form factors while using much less power.
Test Methodology
Silicon Space Technology and Texas Instruments rigorously test the hardening performance of its products according to known and accepted standards up to and including QML-V for space applications.
Test Capability
- Total Ionizing Dose (TID)
- Single Event Upset (SEU)
- Single Event Latch-up (SEL)
- Single Event Transient (SET)
For additional information regarding testing methodologies or test results, click here
SST Advantage
Shielding of COTS parts has become a common approach to protect the electronics of satellites from the harsh environment in space. In this approach, the electronic IC components are not hardened and the designers rely on extensive testing with aluminum shielding to model and validate radiation immunity for the overall module. This approach has proved a reasonable methodology, but it comes with two major trade-offs: 1) significant shielding mass which reduces the options for additional electronic functionality or solar power resources and 2) time consuming and costly verification and test procedures to validate radiation immunity.
Utilization of SST HardSIL™ parts can reduce the trade-offs and associated risks by providing a complementary approach. By mixing in the most hardened parts from SST, a design or module originally planned with extensive shielding and COTS-only electronics can be hybridized with HardSIL™ parts yielding dramatic improvement in hardness and additional distributed shielding options.
Hardening
Various groups have defined the hardening requirements and goals for future satellite, mil-aero and Hi-Rel industrial applications. Moving forward, applications requiring hardened components face increasing gaps between needs and existing capabilities.
