Citation
Abstract
Presently, there are many difficulties associated with implementing application specific custom or semi-custom (standard cell based) integrated circuits (ICs) into JPL flight projects. One of the primary difficulties is developing prototype semi-custom integrated circuits for use and evaluation in engineering prototype flight hardware. The prototype semi-custom ICs must be extremely cost-effective and yet still representative of flight qualifiable versions of the design. A second difficulty is encountered in the transport of the design from engineering prototype quality to flight quality. Normally, flight quality integrated circuits have stringent quality standards, must be radiation resistant and should consume minimal power. It is often not necessary or cost effective, however, to impose such stringent quality standards on engineering models developed for systems analysis in controlled lab environments. This article presents work originally initiated for ground based applications that also addresses these two problems. Furthermore, this article suggests a method that has been shown successful in prototyping flight quality semicustom ICs through the Metal Oxide Semiconductor Implementation Service (MOSIS) program run by the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute. The method presented has been used successfully to design and fabricate through the MOSIS three different semi-custom prototype CMOS p-well chips. The three designs make use of the work presented here and were designed consistent with design techniques and structures that are flight qualifiable, allowing one hour transfer of the design from engineering model status to flight qualifiable foundry-ready status through methods outlined in this article. The design techniques presented here that permit the flight qualifiable prototyping arose as a natural extension of other purely ground-based work that will also be described.
Details
- Volume
- 42-86
- Published
- August 15, 1986
- Pages
- 181–192
- File Size
- 991.9 KB