Posted: 10/05/98

Library vendor Virtual Silicon Technology Inc. (VST) and the University of New Mexico have co-developed and qualified a semiconductor technology that permits

high-complexity ICs for low-earth-orbit space applications to be manufactured on commercial CMOS semiconductor processes.

The joint development, sponsored by NASA and supported by a consortium of participants from the aerospace industry, gives VST (Sunnyvale, Calif.) exclusive world rights to further develop and market advanced radiation-tolerant ASIC libraries using patent technologies licensed by the university's Microelectronics Research Center (MRC).

Traditionally, radiation-hardened components for space flight have been available from only a limited number of specialized foundries, which are costly to operate and several generations behind commercial CMOS foundries, restricting designs to lower performance, higher power consumption and less density than otherwise achievable.

The "radiation-tolerant" technology is expected to bring some rad-hardened device manufacturing into deep-submicron. Taylor Scanlon, VST chief executive officer, said the application-specific libraries, Diplomat-RT, will let manufacturers create devices for low-earth-orbit apps like satellites.

Compared with rad-hardened devices, radiation-tolerant libraries offer an increase of five to 10 times in circuit density, higher performance at advanced processes like 0.35- and 0.5-micron, and lower cost at commercial foundries.

Several organizations contributed. VST developed the Diplomat-RT standard-cell libraries based on MRC's rad-tolerant technology. MRC implemented 0.35- and 0.5-micron test chips with the library and Hewlett-Packard manufactured the chips via the Mosis program. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Johnson Space Center provided systems-design guidance and library qualification. Aerospace Corp. provided additional rad testing and qualification.

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