Microsemi commemorates 55 years in space and 10,000th radiation-tolerant RTAX-S/SL FPGA shipment

ALISO VIEJO, USA: Microsemi Corp. announced it has shipped its 10,000th radiation-tolerant RTAX-S FPGA device for flight-critical applications. Microsemi has also shipped tens of thousands of its previous generation spaceflight FPGAs.

For the past 55 years, Microsemi has developed products for use in space systems orbiting the Earth, moon, Mars, Venus and sun, and for equipment used in missions to the surface of Mars, the Eros asteroid, and into the furthest reaches of the solar system.

Microsemi's space heritage began in 1957 when its micro-positioner relay was launched in the Atlas rocket. The company's space technology was subsequently deployed in a variety of space missions in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as in the Surveyor, Apollo and Saturn programs of the late 1960s and 1970s, the international space station program initiated during the 1990s, and the Mars Rovers, Mars Science Lab and Cygnus spacecraft initiatives of the 2000s and 2010s.

Microsemi powered the mission computer on the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Shoemaker Satellite during its five year mission and ultimate landing on the surface of Eros.

"Our radiation-tolerant RTAX-S/SL FPGAs for space-flight applications continue our heritage of providing an alternative to costly and inflexible ASICs, and have since become the industry standard for performance, power efficiency and reliability," said James J. Peterson, Microsemi's president and CEO. "This milestone is one of many that have punctuated our more than half century of commitment to space innovation, as demonstrated through our integral role in hundreds of missions and development programs around the world."

Microsemi's broad portfolio of radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant space products includes FPGAs, ASICs, RF components, diodes, transistors, MOSFETS, hybrids, power supplies, custom semiconductor packaging and integrated power distribution systems.

The company's products are qualified to the highest government, DLA, NASA and ESA standards, and their reliability has been independently verified by multiple agencies. Microsemi solves space system problems at all stages of design and implementation, including power conversion and distribution, radio and radar signal processing, system telemetry and control, digital logic integration, and semiconductor packaging.