Product category:
Programmable Logic Devices
News Release from: Actel Europe | Subject: RTAX-S
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 07 August 2007
FPGA to acquire Martian weather data
Radiation-tolerant one-million-gate FPGA forms part of the meteorological station onboard NASA's recently launched Phoenix mission to Mars.
Actel's radiation-tolerant RTAX-S field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) feature onboard NASA's Phoenix mission to Mars, which launched on 4th August 2007 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida The Phoenix spacecraft includes a meteorological station (MET), provided by the Canadian Space Agency
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 26 Jun 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Space qualified FPGAs cut power consumption
The low-power radiation-tolerant RTAX-SL FPGA family is specifically targeted at high-reliability space-flight designs.
LGA-packaged FPGAs suit critical applications
Actel has expanded its package selection to include a land grid array option for its RTAX-S field-programmable gate array family.
MDA, a leading provider of robotic space systems, led construction of the MET instrument and has integrated Actel's one-million-gate RTAX1000S-CQ352 device into the instrument subsystem, which is used to acquire, process and transmit temperature and pressure data to scientists and researchers back on Earth.
"We have a stringent review and evaluation process for our suppliers", said Andrew Kerr, Program Manager for the MET Program at MDA.
"Following this review, we determined that the RTAX1000S-CQ352 provided the high reliability and stringent low-power metrics required for this mission-essential function".
Further reading
FPGAs are fully qualified for space duties
Actel Corp is shipping fully qualified RTAX-S field-programmable gate arrays to customers developing high-reliability space-flight systems.
Radiation-tolerant FPGAs sampling now
Actel Corp has released engineering samples of all three devices in its high-density RTAX-S family of radiation-tolerant field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).
Radiation-tolerant FPGA is alternative to ASIC
The 250,000-gate RTAX250S field-programmable gate array extends the RTAX-S family to three devices, ranging in density from 250,000 to 2-million equivalent system gates.
"Using the high-density RTAX-S Actel device, MDA's MET instrument temperature and pressure subsystem is designed to provide accurate data throughout the mission, without failures".
The Phoenix mission will study the history of water and habitability potential in the Martian arctic's ice-rich soil.
The Phoenix spacecraft includes the MET built by MDA, which will record the daily weather of the Martian northern plains using temperature and pressure sensors.
Once the Phoenix arrives on Mars, the MET instruments will be used constantly in surface operations, which are expected to last 150 days.
These instruments are central to scientific exploration on Mars, providing the essential tools scientists need to learn more about the Martian climate and geology, as well as determine whether life has ever existed.
The MET instrument will contribute to the success of the Phoenix mission.
The MET instruments operate on a combination of battery power and solar energy.
Because sunlight in the Martian polar region is even weaker than at its equator, all systems and their components must feature extremely efficient power management.
"MDA needed a 'no risk,' low-power solution to develop their multi-million-dollar system for space flight", says Rich Brossart, Vice President of Product Marketing at Actel.
"Actel's antifuse-based technology combines radiation tolerance with the industry's lowest power, enabling it to withstand the rigorous environments of space flight and exploration".
The Actel radiation-tolerant RTAX-S FPGA family consists of devices ranging in density from 250,000 to 4-million equivalent system gates.
The family, which includes the RTAX1000S used in the Phoenix mission's flight, offers unique features desirable for space-flight applications, including single-event upset (SEU)-hardened flip-flops, usable error-corrected onboard memory and a large number of user I/O.
These, in combination with the inherent benefits of Actel's nonvolatile products, give designers the ability to minimise power consumption, reduce component count and save board space and weight while meeting their density, performance and radiation-resistance requirements.
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