Rad-Hard Sigma-Delta 3-Channel ADC for Fluxgate Magnetometers

The proposed project aims to develop a multi-channel analog to digital converter (ADC) required for a fluxgate magnetometer (EPD) employed on NASA's planetary exploration missions. The ADC has to feature very high resolution, radiation hardness (tolerance to SEE and TID), low power consumption and be suitable for operation over a wide temperature range. The proposed 3-channel sigma-delta ADC will be a wide-tunable device which will achieve resolution from 17 to 23.5 effective number of bits (ENOB) at 51.2kS/s rate. The combination of the innovative reconfigurable architecture and low distortion topology will permit to optimize the ADC's power consumption within a wide range and to ensure 3.5fJ figure of merit (FoM). The offset cancellation technique will be implemented to the ADC to solve the offset problem common to all magnetometers. Radiation hardening techniques such as RHBD, RHBL and RHBS will be employed. The proposed novel 17-level sub-ADC's topology requires two times fewer comparators than classic topology, which also helps to save power and to reduce the on-chip area. The ADC will be implemented using IBM's deep submicron SOI CMOS technology with connected body option. Phase I work will provide the proof of feasibility of implementing the proposed ADC. Phase II will result in the silicon proven ADC's prototypes being ready for commercialization in Phase III.

The proposed radiation hardened ADC will be developed primarily targeting the application in NASA's magnetometers. Low power, small size, high precision, self-calibrating magnetometers are required for virtually any Earth and space science mission. The proposed ADC provides a flexible digitizer solution for the SoCs, SIPs and ASICs that are required to meet the radiation hardness, high performance, size and weight requirements of space applications. Potential NASA applications for the ADC include devices for the spacecraft equipment used during such NASA missions as ICON, GOLD, Solar Orbiter, Solar Probe Plus, ONEP, SEPAT, INCA, CISR, DGC, HMag and planetary exploration.

The proposed low power sigma-delta ADC has wide area of commercial applications including wideband receivers, space communication systems, navigation systems, high precision measurement electronics, medical electronics, high complexity reconfigurable receiving and readout circuits, automotive electronics, and portable devices.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 2) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.