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.