Northrop Grumman develops next-generation of ASICs for military and space systems

REDONDO BEACH, USA: Northrop Grumman Corp. has developed a radiation-hardened by design, 90 nanometer, silicon on insulator (RHBD 90nm SOI), standard cell and intellectual property library for military and space applications.

Radiation hardening by design is a method of making electronic components and systems resistant to damage or malfunctions by ionizing radiation, or particle radiation and high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Silicon on insulator is a high-performance semiconductor wafer technology that produces lower-power and higher performance devices than traditional bulk silicon techniques.

"This next-generation of application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology allows a higher level of integration, lower power and faster speeds," said Stuart Linsky, vice president of satellite communications for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "This cell library enables users to design very large radiation hardened ASICs in a low-power, high-performance semiconductor process for space applications."

The company's RHBD 90nm SOI library includes a full array of intellectual property for custom ASIC development:

* Full array of 1-Volt standard cell gates (340 cells).
* Serializer/Deserializer (3.125 gigabits per second).
* Phase-Locked Loop.
* Static Random Access Memory Compiler.
* 1.8V and 2.5V Input/Output buffers.

Northrop Grumman and Cadence Design Systems of San Jose, Calif. developed the library with RHBD techniques. Using a commercial SOI foundry at Freescale Semiconductor in Austin, Texas, multiple test chips were fabricated, including a 5 million-gate ASIC. All were tested to validate the library's suitability for space applications.

"Northrop Grumman develops cutting edge technology geared toward one goal – mission success," said Mike Doktorczyk, corporate vice president of global services at Cadence. "This sophisticated cell and IP library, developed using state-of-the-art SOI technology, is a testament to what is possible when leading technologists team up to innovate, and we are proud Northrop Grumman turned to Cadence to help create it."