Multi-Gigabit Rate Radiation Hard Bus

High speed robust very low power radiation hardened bus interconnects are required to accelerate on-board computations, further improve reconfigurability and upgrade capabilities of tracking systems, and provide easy system upgrade. The existing radiation-hardening techniques significantly degrade the achievable circuit's performance, reducing speed and increasing power consumption. In order to accelerate on-board computations, improve onboard autonomous navigation and time-transfer systems that can reduce DSN tracking requirements, ADSANTEC will develop Multi-Gigabit Rate Radiation Hard Bus supporting an open system architecture and providing a cost effective multi-gigabit interconnect. This development will be based on ADSANTEC's pioneering SERDES concept, supporting a variety of interfaces and operating broadband at any frequency. The design will be based on ADSANTEC's proprietary patent pending library of radiation hardened cells based on HBTs with fT=120/220GHz and will be fabricated in a commercial high-performance BiCMOS technology. Phase I was devoted for bus architecture design and computer simulations of the synchronization circuitry. The complete chip will be fabricated at tested the end of Phase II, and space (Class K) qualified at Phase II. The proposed SERDES is a revolutionary upgrade of the existing ADSANTEC's Bus solution scheduled for launch (LADEE Program) in May 2011.

The pioneering Multi-Gigabit Rate Radiation Hard Bus supporting an open system architecture will dramatically speed-up the development of commercial space data-processing and telecommunication systems that require gigabit data rates and low power consumption. Possible commercial areas include serializer/deserializer products, analog-to-digital converters, switching fabrics, etc. The high radiation tolerance of the proposed technology makes it also suitable for NASA and commercial space applications.

Plug-and-Play Multi-Gigabit Rate Radiation Hard Bus supporting an open system architecture capable to operate at extreme temperatures and radiation environment of deep space will be also highly beneficial for the success of NASA's Constellation projects that are designed to leave low-earth orbit (Orion, Ares V Earth Departure Stage, Altair, Lunar Surface Systems, EVA suits, etc.). It will speed up the development of avionic systems with high performance, flexibility and reliability critical for those projects.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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.