We believe that the availability of a high-specification radiation-hardened flash memory would be a very popular product for NASA space-based observatories, fly-by spacecraft, orbiters, landers and robotic / sample return missions that require robust command and control capabilities. The alternatives are up-screened devices with very limited radiation performance. Every programmable digital board that is used in every spacecraft requires a non-volatile memory device to store program code. This device could be used in each of these applications. Flash is an attractive alternative to all other types of substitute memory types as it is dense, low power, doesn’t need masks to program, doesn’t need high programming voltages and it is fast. Some examples of functions of the low-cost radiation hardened flash memory integrated circuit are: -Program storageBootloader -Personality / customization data storage -Calibration data -Payload sensor storage data It would be possible to create a family of products of different densities to meet many application requirements. We would start with a device around 64Mbit density and then propose to create a full family of devices with higher memory sizes. It is possible to include different types of memory interfaces on the chips (both serial and parallel) to meet all possible space applications.
We believe that the availability of a high-specification radiation-hardened flash memory would be a very popular product for many aerospace and military applications. As with NASA applications, this function is required everywhere that there is a programmable chip such as a processor, including ASICs and FPGAs. Today, the market relies upon up-screened technology that does not have strong radiation specifications. Despite their poor performance, today’s solutions are expensive and often have very long availability lead-times.VORAGO can improve on radiation performance as well as lead time because instead of relying upon up-screening, the VORAGO flash memory devices will be fabricated in a high-volume wafer fab that is running a commercial CMOS flow that is only slightly modified by HARDSIL® technology.
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