ALPHACORE INC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: S1

Description

NASA Science Mission Directoratersquo;s (SMD) programs demand an innovative single-chip 6-bit 20GSPS analog to digital converter (ADC) capable of surviving and maintaining performance in extreme environments for use in next generation low-power, rad-tolerant broad band spectrometer back ends for microwave radiometers. Broadband spectrometers in Earth observing, planetary, and astrophysics missions have a critical need for greater sensitivity detector arrays for imaging, spectroscopy, and polarimetric capabilities, which can be demonstrated on ground, airborne, balloon, suborbital rocket instruments, or uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) platforms. Future cloud, water and precipitation missions like Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) require higher frequency electronics, with small form factors and high power added efficiencies (PAE).nbsp;Alphacore proposes a competitively disruptive ADC, based on its similar solutions, to meet NASArsquo;s request for development of advance science instruments, observatories amp; sensor systems. The rad hard ADC, with Size Weight and Power (SWaP) efficiencies, will start with existingnbsp;Alphacorenbsp;validated silicon to exceed a sampling rate of 20GSPS with an effective number of bits gt;6 and a straightforward FPGA interface. The ADC consists of a high-performance, low-power design that can be developed as a stand-alone chip or licensed as an IP block for use in advanced system-on-chip (SOC) architectures. The ADC employs a silicon proven radiation hardened flash architecture using a common FD-SOI wafer process node