MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INC

IGF::OT::IGF SBIR III MASKLESS E-BEAM LITHOGRAPHY FOR PRODUCTION OF TRUSTED DOD MICROCHIPS: FEASABILITY DEMONSTRATION

MITIGATING OBSOLESCENCE OF MIL-PRF-19500 TO DESIGN, FABRICATE, ASSEMBLE, BUILD, TEST, EVALUATE, VERIFY, VALIDATE, AND/OR PROCURE MICROELECTRONICS AND OPERATE SUCH A FACILITY.

VANISHING PROGRAMMABLE RESOURCES (VAPR),PARC WILL INTEGRATE THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH STRESS-ENGINEERED MATERIALS, SILICON PROCESSING, AND MICROCHIP HANDLING AND DEPOSITION TO CREATE A TRANSIENCE TECHNOLOGY CALLED DISINTEGRATION UPON STRESS-RELEASE TRIGGER, OR DUST. PARC PROPOSES TO DEVELOP STRESS-ENGINEERED SUBSTRATES WITH INTEGRATED TRIGGERS AND SILICON PROXY, OR DUMMY CIRCUITS THAT, UPON APPLICATION OF A SHORT ELECTRICAL TRIGGER, WILL CRUMBLE INTO SMALL, SAND-LIKE PARTICLES IN A FRACTION OF A SECOND. THE PARTICLE SIZE IS SUCH THAT THE INDIVIDUAL PIECES WILL BE INVISIBLE TO THE NAKED EYE AT A REASONABLE DISTANCE AND WILL BLEND INTO THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT UNDER A VARIETY OF CONOPS. THE TRANSIENCE BEHAVIOR IS ENABLED AS THE INTENSE INTERNAL STRESS OF THE SUBSTRATE IS RELEASED, AND IS THE CORE ELEMENT OF THIS TECHNOLOGY.

IGF::OT::IGF THE NASA'S PATH MISSION EMPLOYS GEOSTAR SPECTRAL RADIOMETER PROCESSING DATA FROM ANTENNA CONSISTING OF THREE ARMS, EACH HOLDING 128 MICROWAVE RECEIVERS. EACH OF THE 384 RECEIVERS AMPLIFIES RF SIGNALS, AND DOWN-CONVERTS THEM TO AN INTERMEDIATE FREQUENCY (IF). AS A RESULT, 768 IN-PHASE (I) AND QUADRATURE (Q) SIGNALS ARE PRODUCED WITH A FREQUENCY OF 10 TO 500MHZ. THE IF SIGNALS HAVE TO BE NORMALIZED AND DIGITIZED WITH 1GS/S SAMPLING RATE FOR FURTHER CROSS-CORRELATION. EACH SIGNAL FROM ONE ARM OF THE RECEIVER MUST BE CROSS-CORRELATED WITH ALL SIGNALS FROM THE OTHER TWO ARMS, THEREFORE A SYSTEM CONTAINING 196,000 PARALLEL CROSS-CORRELATION BLOCKS IS NEEDED. SINCE THE GEOSTAR IS A SPACE BORN INSTRUMENT, LOW POWER DISSIPATION AND ENSURING SYSTEM RELIABILITY, THROUGH PROCESSING REDUNDANCY, ARE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT REQUIREMENTS. A SYSTEM ASSEMBLED BY USING OFF-THE-SHELF COMPONENTS WOULD BE EXTREMELY POWER INEFFICIENT, BULKY, AND UNRELIABLE. THEREFORE, A SYSTEM THAT IS BASED ON APPLICATION SPECIFIC INTEGRATED CIRCUITS (ASICS) IS REQUIRED. WHILE WORKING ON THE NASA'S SBIR PHASE II PROJECT "LOW POWER CROSS-CORRELATOR ASIC" (NNX13CP01C), PACIFIC MICROCHIP CORP. HAS DEVELOPED AND FABRICATED AN ASIC THAT INCLUDES 128-ELEMENT ARRAY OF 2-BIT 1GS/S ADCS, AND 4096 PARALLEL CROSS-CORRELATION CELLS. THE ASIC WAS DESIGNED BASED ON THE GEOSTAR RADIOMETER REQUIREMENTS, THEREFORE IT IS INTENDED TO BE THE KEY COMPONENT IN THE CROSS-CORRELATOR SYSTEM WHICH IS BEING DEVELOPED. THE SYSTEM WILL CONTAIN MEANS CORRELATION RESULTS FURTHER POST-PROCESSING AND CONTROL OF ASICS.

76001-204

IGF::OT::IGF HIGH-SAMPLE RATE ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTERS FOR RECONFIGURABLE PHASED ARRAY APPLICATIONS

76001-204

SPECTROMETERS CURRENTLY EMPLOYED BY NASA INCLUDE FIELD PROGRAMMABLE ARRAYS (FPGAS), ANALOG TO DIGITAL CONVERTERS (ADCS) AND A NUMBER OF OTHER DISCRETE COMPONENTS ASSEMBLED ON A PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD (PCB). AN APPLICATION SPECIFIC INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (ASIC) BASED SPECTROMETER OFFERS A GREAT REDUCTION IN WEIGHT, VOLUME AND POWER CONSUMPTION COMPARED TO THE FPGA/PCB BASED IMPLEMENTATION. THIS PROPOSAL AIMS TO DEVELOP A LOW-POWER (LP) POLY-PHASE SPECTROMETER (PPS) ASIC. THE PROPOSED ASIC AIMS TO ACHIEVE A 4GHZ BANDWIDTH AND 8192 USABLE FREQUENCY BINS. IN ORDER TO IMPLEMENT THE REQUIRED FUNCTIONALITY AND MEET THE SPECIFICATIONS WHILE CONSUMING BELOW 1.5W OF POWER, THE PROPOSED ASIC WILL INCLUDE A STATE-OF-THE-ART 6-BIT ADC, A DEMULTIPLEXER, A POLY-PHASE FILTER BANK, A WINDOWING FUNCTION, A FAST-FOURIER-TRANSFORM CORE, A FREQUENCY-DOMAIN DATA ANALYSIS BLOCK, A DATA READOUT, A DIGITAL CONTROL UNIT AND TESTING FEATURES. TOLERANCE TO AT LEAST 500KRADS OF TOTAL IONIZING DOSE (TID) RADIATION WILL BE ACHIEVED BY IMPLEMENTING THE ASIC USING AN ULTRA-THIN GATE OXIDE CMOS TECHNOLOGY. LOW POWER CONSUMPTION WILL BE ACHIEVED BY EMPLOYING SPECIAL MULTIPLIER-LESS-ACCUMULATORS AND MULTIPLIER-LESS- BUTTERFLIES . THE POWER CONSUMPTION WILL BE FURTHER REDUCED BY MINIMIZING THE REDUNDANT STATES IN THE POLY-PHASE FILTER S FIR AND IFFT BLOCK. ADDITIONAL POWER-SAVING CAN BE ACHIEVED BY SWITCHING OFF THE ASIC S UNUSED BLOCKS, AND BY INTERNALLY DIVIDING THE CLOCK FREQUENCY. PHASE I WORK PROVIDED THE PROOF OF FEASIBILITY OF IMPLEMENTING THE PROPOSED SPECTROMETER ASIC. PHASE II WILL RESULT IN THE SILICON PROVEN ASIC S PROTOTYPES READY FOR COMMERCIALIZATION IN PHASE III.

IGF::OT::IGF - THE NASA'S PATH MISSION INCLUDES THE GEOSTAR SATELLITE THAT CARRIES ABOARD A MICROWAVE SOUNDER EMPLOYING AN ARRAY OF 375 MICROWAVE ANTENNAS WITH CORRESPONDING RECEIVERS. EACH RECEIVER IS TUNED TO THE 180GHZ FREQUENCY, WHILE THE INTERMEDIATE FREQUENCY (IF) REACHES 500MHZ. THE IF SIGNAL IS QUANTIZED AT 1GHZ WITH 2-BIT ACCURACY. THE RESULTING DATA RATE IS 700GB/S. THIS DATA HAS TO BE PRE-PROCESSED ABOARD THE SATELLITE BEFORE IT CAN BE TRANSMITTED TO EARTH FOR FURTHER PROCESSING. ONE OF THE STEPS OF SUCH DATA PROCESSING IS CROSS-CORRELATION. FOR A SPACE BORNE INSTRUMENT, POWER DISSIPATION AND RADIATION HARDNESS ARE AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT REQUIREMENTS. PACIFIC MICROCHIP CORP. IS DESIGNING AN ASIC THAT INCLUDES A CROSS-CORRELATION UNIT WITH INTERFACES FOR THE GEOSTAR'S RECEIVERS. THE ASIC WILL HAVE GREATLY REDUCED POWER CONSUMPTION COMPARED TO THAT OF THE FPGA-BASED OR CLASSIC ASIC-BASED IMPLEMENTATIONS. THIS ASIC MUST BE DESIGNED AND INTEGRATED WITH ALREADY EXISTING SYSTEM COMPONENTS OF THE GEOSTAR INSTRUMENT. THE ASIC INCLUDES CROSS-CORRELATION CELLS BASED ON NOVEL ARCHITECTURE. THE DEEP SUBMICRON SOI CMOS TECHNOLOGY SELECTED FOR THE ASIC'S FABRICATION WILL INCREASE ITS TOLERANCE TO THE TOTAL IONIZING DOSE (TID) AND REDUCE THE PROBABILITY OF RADIATION-INDUCED LATCH-UP. THE DESIGN OF THE ASIC WILL FOLLOW DESIGN FOR TESTABILITY (DFT) METHODS, WHICH WILL SIMPLIFY CHARACTERIZATION AND TESTING OF THE FABRICATED ASIC, REDUCE RISK AND LOWER THE COST OF THE PRODUCT.

VARIOUS BRAND NAME ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS AND HARDWARE (ADEX ELECTRONICS, API, BIT SYSTEMS, CRUCIAL, DRT, INTEL, MICROCHIP, MINI CIRCUITS, PASTERNACK, PENTEK, STARTECH, SUPERMICRO).