Radiation-Hardened Processors and Space-Grade Electronics
Why are space computers hard to buy, who makes them, and is the shortage easing?
Chapter summary
space electronics must survive radiation that flips bits, degrades transistors and can destroy circuits outright.
Key takeaways
- 1
Parts designed and tested to tolerate it, radiation-hardened ("rad-hard") processors, FPGAs and memories, come from a handful of suppliers using a few specialised or older foundry processes.
- 2
Reported lead times for rad-hard processors run from one to two years.
- 3
Two shifts are easing the pressure: low-orbit constellations increasingly fly radiation-tolerant commercial parts with redundancy, and a new generation of high-performance rad-hard chips (Microchip's PIC64-HPSC, developed with NASA) is entering qualification.
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