Chip Manufacturers Expand Their Options for Radiation-Hardened Solid-State Memory

by John Keller Military & Aerospace Electronics, October 2005 Use of radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant solid-state memory chips is on the rise with applications in manned and unmanned space vehicles, military electronics, and even in high-altitude aircraft avionics. Yet scarce federal dollars for defense technology, as increasing amounts go for overseas military operations in the Middle East and for rebuilding the hurricane-wracked U.S. Gulf Coast and City of New Orleans, dictate that radiation-hardened systems be designed as economically as possible. That financial squeeze often translates into radiation-hardened subsystems and components for space and military applications that largely use commercial-grade solid-state memory, and make the most of shielded enclosures and software error correction. Read more