Following a competitive bidding process, IROC has been selected by the European Space Agency to carry out the project “Definition of Radiation Effects Mitigation Techniques for Ultra-Deep Submicron Technologies”.
This activity intends to assess the suitability of Ultra Deep Submicron (UDSM) technology nodes below 22nm for space applications. A UDSM Working group lead by ESA and gathering major European space actors has identified 2 FinFETs technologies that are potentially suitable to meet the performance and flexibility needs of future space missions: 12LP from GlobalFoundries and 16/12FFC from TSMC.
In this project, IROC will carry out an assessment and a comparison of selected technologies for space applications, in terms of technical performances, accessibility and sustainability. Furthermore, IROC will design, manufacture and characterize a Test Chip to quantify the radiation sensitivity of existing commercial libraries and possible radiation effects mitigation techniques that would improve the radiation hardness. IROC will also prepare simulation libraries and models compatible with leading SEE evaluation EDA tools to help the cell design and hardening efforts.
Finally, IROC will draw conclusions on the suitability of the selected technology for next-generation space ICs based on the testchip validation and the simulation results. Evaluation results and conclusions shall be made available to all users in ESA member and participating states.