Radiation Hardening of Non-Hardened Commercial Microelectronics

The performance and survivability of Department of War (DoW) and space systems, especially those operating in space environments, are critically affected by radiation. Radiation testing of parts is a major cost and schedule driver for DoW and space systems. The market for microelectronics that meet government radiation requirements is small. Commercial microelectronics could meet the government’s performance requirements while failing to meet its natural space requirements. Some state-of-the-art processes like Gate All Around (GAA) technologies meet the DoW’s performance and Size, Weight, and Power (SWAP) requirements yet might not meet all of the DoW’s survivability requirements. MDA seeks a process which utilizes advanced packaging techniques and chiplets to pair fast ‘non-hardened’ components with slower hardened packages together, thereby increasing the radhard (radiation hardened) tolerance while maintaining the high performance of non-hardened commercial technologies. The goal is to target a minimum Single Event Latch-up (SEL) immunity of 75 Linear Energy Transfer (LET) and Total Ionizing Dose (TID) survival of 300 kRad(Si). This topic will seek to take existing Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) parts/chiplets fabricated using state-of-the-art processes such as sub-16nm FinFETs (Fin Field Effect Transistor) or GAA modify them or provide a package on package like solution such that their radiation tolerance meets natural space requirements. This includes solutions based on heterogeneous packaging, where a radhard "watchdog" chiplet is integrated to monitor and compensate for radiation-induced errors in the high-performance COTS component. At a minimum, the final product should meet an SEL immunity requirement of at least 75 LET and must be able to survive at least a 300 kRad TID. Solutions relying on shielding the part or requiring access at the state-of-the-art foundry to add or change masks are not of interest. All solutions should start with already fabricated parts either in bare die form or packaged parts.