Radiation
hardening is a process in which the electronic components and
semiconductors are made resistant to malfunctions caused due to
electromagnetic radiation and particle radiation. These radiations
are classified under ionizing radiation and they generally occur at
high altitude, outer space, nuclear reactors and during nuclear
warfare and nuclear accidents. Majority of the semiconductors and
electronic components are vulnerable to such radiation effects; thus,
to reduce the susceptibility, the manufacturing and designing of
these semiconductors and electronic components is varied from their
non-hardened counterparts. However, owing to the extensive cost
involved in testing and developing radiation-tolerant designs of
microelectronic chip, the radiation-hardened electronic and
semiconductors have a propensity to lag behind in terms of recent
developments. Radiation-hardened electronics and semiconductors are
tested using several resultant effect tests such as total ionizing
dose, neutron and proton displacement damage, single event effects
and enhanced low dose rate effects.
The
environments at high altitude comprises high level of ionizing
radiation, as a result, there are several challenges for the
designers and manufactures of the electronics and semiconductor
devices that can sustain the radiation effects. The major problem
caused due to such radiations is signal spikes and electronic noise.
These noise and spikes can be generated by a single charge particle
that is capable of knocking thousands of loose electrons. This can in
turn result in inaccuracies in implementation/execution of integrated
digital circuits used in spacecrafts, satellites, military aircraft
and nuclear weapons, and power stations. Owing to the demand for
integrated digital circuits for such critical applications, it is
important for the manufacturers to implement radiation hardening
techniques to ensure that the components produced are resistant to
radiations.
The
radiation hardening techniques are classified under two categories
namely, physical hardening and logical hardening. The physical
hardening techniques include manufacturing the electronic components
using insulating substrates such as silicon on insulator and silicon
on sapphire. Additionally, bipolar integrated circuits, magneto
resistive random access memory, shielding packages and capacitor
based dynamic random access memory are the major electronic
components that are radiation hardened. The logical hardening
techniques includes parity checking, using redundant elements, using
hardened latches and using watchdog timer to reduce the impact of
radiation on the electronic circuits.
The
radiation hardened electronics and semiconductors is primarily driven
by the increasing demand for communication satellites which results
is high demand for radiation hardened components. Moreover, several
countries investing on the space projects to launch various
satellites in outer space is further propelling the demand for
radiation hardened electronic components and semiconductors. However,
the major challenges for the manufacturers of these components is the
demand for highly customized components and high cost involved to
set-up the testing and developing facilities for such components.
Conversely, with the increasing investments in research and
development of electronics and semiconductors, it is expected that
the impact of such challenges will minimize over the coming years.
The
radiation hardened electronics and semiconductors market is segmented
on the basis of applications and geography. The application segment
comprises aerospace applications, defense applications and space
applications. The space applications are further classified as
commercial applications and military applications. The radiation
hardened electronics and semiconductors market is dominated by
players such as BAE Systems, Honeywell International, Inc., Microsemi
Corporation, Xilinx Corporation, Atmel Corporation, Maxwell
Technologies, Intersill Corp., Texas Instruments, Inc., Linear
Technology Corp. and ST Microelectronics.
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