ALPHACORE INC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: Z2

Description

NASA is seeking radiation tolerant standard cell libraries for processes below 28nm that are suitable for NASA missions in the natural space environment. As a response, Alphacore proposesnbsp;anbsp;complete library of radiation-hard standard cells implemented in the GlobalFoundries 22nm fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) CMOS fabrication process (GF 22FDX).nbsp;With CMOS downscaling, the soft error rate (SER) due to radiation-induced charge generation and collection in sensitive nodes of integrated circuitsnbsp; improves at the device level. However, as more memories and latches are integrated per chip, the chip-level SER increases with eachnbsp;new technologynbsp;node.nbsp;Thus, single-event effects (SEE) are a crucial concern in advanced nodes for high-reliability applications in space, atmospheric, and terrestrial radiation environments.nbsp;SOI technologies have shown significant improvements in SEE resiliency due to reduction in charge deposition in sensitive volumes, immunity to single-event latch-up (SEL), and suppression of charge sharing mechanisms. In particular, Ultra-Thin Body and BOX technologies, such as 28nm and 22nm FDSOI, show excellent resiliency to SEEs and very low SER.nbsp;The Phase I program will strongly leverage Alphacorersquo;s existing 22FDX radiation effect characterization, radiation hardening by design (RHBD), and overall mixed-signal IP development work. Withnbsp;itsnbsp;extensive experiencenbsp;in this area, Alphacore will have a complete radiation tolerant library designed by the end of the Phase I program.nbsp;nbsp;In Phase II,nbsp;a complete radiation tolerant standard cell library will be fabricated and tested.nbsp;The elements will be tested for functionality, circuit performance and radiation hardness, including both SEE and total ionizing dose (TID).nbsp;Alphacore will also schedule another majornbsp;tapeoutnbsp;within the Phase II program andnbsp;containingnbsp;optimized cells, ready to be used by NASA and other customers in their applications needing both excellent performance and radiation hardness.nbsp;