Space and radiation-hardened parts lifecycle

A dashed sign with a TR tag is a technical readiness review gate.

An outlined sign with an arrow is a hand-off: the gate is owned by the Product lifecycle, where this lifecycle hands its work on.

1. Mission & Environment Requirements

   Turning a mission or platform need into a part specification: the orbit or trajectory, mission duration, temperature and vacuum conditions, and the radiation environment the part must survive, expressed as total dose, displacement damage and single-event requirements, with the quality level, the procurement route and the first export classification agreed.

   CAConcept approval gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Concept approval)RBMission requirements baselined gateECExport classification agreed gate

2. Radiation Hardening Approach & Technology Selection

   Deciding how the part will meet its radiation requirements: hardening by process on a technology built for radiation tolerance, hardening by design on a commercial process with hardened libraries and mitigation, or a mix, based on the technology's known radiation response, its expected supply life and the cost and schedule the mission allows.

   HAHardening approach approved gateTR1, technical readiness review

3. Architecture & Radiation Mitigation Design

   Defining the architecture and the mitigation for each radiation effect: redundancy and voting for upsets, error detection and correction on memories, scrubbing, latch-up protection and current limiting, dose margins on analog and timing paths, and the derating rules every block must follow.

   AAMitigation architecture approved gate

4. Hardened Design & Implementation

   Writing the RTL and the analog circuits with their mitigation in place: triplicated or hardened storage elements, protected state machines, memory protection and scrubbing logic, hardened analog structures, and the checks that synthesis and optimisation have not removed redundancy the mitigation depends on.

   DFHardened design freeze gate

5. Verification & Fault Injection

   Verifying the function and the mitigation together: functional verification to the plan, then fault injection campaigns that flip storage elements and disturb signals in simulation, emulation or formal analysis, to show each upset is corrected, detected or harmless as the mitigation architecture claims.

   FIFault injection sign-off gateTR2, technical readiness review

6. Radiation-aware Sign-off & Tape-out

   Implementing and signing off the layout with radiation rules applied: spacing and separation of redundant elements so one particle cannot upset several copies, guard rings and well ties against latch-up, timing and power margins for end-of-life dose, then the final checks and release of the database to the foundry.

   TOTape-out gate

7. Silicon Validation & Characterisation

   Bringing up first silicon, validating function and performance across temperature and voltage, characterising the analog parameters that radiation will shift, and building engineering models so customers can start their own board and system work.

   FSFirst silicon gateSVSilicon validated gateEMEngineering models gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Engineering samples)

8. Radiation Testing: Total Dose, Single Events & Displacement Damage

   Measuring the part's real radiation response: total ionising dose testing with parameters measured before, during and after exposure, single-event testing with heavy ions and protons for upsets, transients, functional interrupts and latch-up, and displacement damage testing where the part is sensitive to it, then comparing the results with the predictions.

   RRRadiation test readiness gateRCRadiation characterised gate

9. Screening & Lot Acceptance

   Defining the screening every flight part goes through, such as burn-in, temperature cycling, hermeticity checks and electrical tests at temperature, and the lot acceptance tests run on samples from each wafer lot or assembly lot, including radiation lot acceptance where the quality level calls for it.

   SFScreening and lot acceptance flow approved gate

10. Qualification to Space Standards

    Qualifying the part, its package and its manufacturing line to the framework the customer requires, such as qualified manufacturer listing under MIL-PRF-38535 at class Q or class V, a part approved under the European Space Components Coordination system and the ECSS standards for EEE components, or a qualification agreed in the customer's own procurement specification.

    SQQualification start gateQLQualified gateTR3, technical readiness review

11. Flight Production, Long-term Supply & Obsolescence

    Producing, screening and releasing flight lots with their data packs and certificates of conformance, holding die and wafer banks where agreed, controlling every change to the process, materials and test, and watching the supply chain for obsolescence over a supply life that can outlast the commercial life of the technology.

    FRFlight lot release gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Launch review)ORSupply and obsolescence review gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Lifecycle review)

12. End of Life & Archive

    Closing the part's supply in an orderly way: an obsolescence assessment, a last-time-buy notice with enough time for programs to plan, final lots built and screened, die banks used or released, and the design, test, qualification, radiation and export records archived for the life of the missions that fly the part.

    LTBLast-time buy gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Last-time buy)ESLast-time ship gate, owned by the Product lifecycle (Last-time ship)

An outlined sign with an arrow is a hand-off: the gate is owned by the Product lifecycle, where this lifecycle hands its work on.