Products such as those undergoing space flight component certification
FPGA silicon, prototyping in package possible Microchip Technology Inc. announced today that it has begun shipping engineering silicon for its Radiation Tolerance (RT) PolarFire FPGA, which is undergoing space flight component reliability standard certification.
▲ Microchip, for RT PolarFire FPGA
Engineering Silicon Shipments Begin [Image = Microchip]
Engineers can build hardware prototypes with the same electrical and mechanical performance that space-certified RT PolarFire FPGAs provide for high-bandwidth satellite-mounted processing systems.
The RT PolarFire FPGA 'RTPF500T' is designed to withstand rocket launches and meet the demanding performance requirements in space. It is suitable for applications such as high-resolution passive/active imaging, precision remote scientific measurements, multi/hyperspectral imaging, and object detection/recognition using neural networks.
Microchip is in the process of obtaining MIL-STD-883 Class B and QML Class Q·V certification for the RTPF500T. In particular, QML Class V is the highest level of certification and screening standard for single integrated circuits in the space industry.
RT PolarFire FPGAs enable satellite payloads to transmit pre-processed information rather than raw data, making optimal use of limited downlink bandwidth.
It delivers higher performance, logic density, and SERDES (SERializer-DESerializer) bandwidth than other space-certified FPGAs currently available, enables higher system complexity than previous-generation FPGAs, and consumes half the power of SRAM-based FPGAs.
Additionally, it can withstand total ionizing dose (TID) exposures exceeding 100 kilorads (kRad), which is typical for most Earth-orbiting satellites and many deep space missions, and utilizes SONOS configuration switches to prevent configuration upsets due to cosmic radiation.
“Many customers have already begun developing satellite system payloads with our PolarFire FPGA, the MPF500T,” said Bruce Weyer, vice president of Microchip’s FPGA business unit. “Now, they can do all their prototyping work in silicon with the same form factor and functionality of the final spaceflight-qualified RT PolarFire FPGA, the RTPF500T.”
The RT PolarFire FPGA engineering model is available in a hermetic ceramic package with land grid, solder ball, and solder column termination options. The model is supported by a development board, Microchip’s Libero® software tool suite, and radiation data.
