# Presentation: 091375

## The NASA Electronic Parts and Packaging (NEPP) Program

**Kenneth A. LaBel****	****	****Michael J.Sampson**
**ken.label@nasa.gov****	****michael.j.sampson@nasa.gov**
**301-286-9936****	****	****	****301-286-3335**
**Co- Managers NEPP Program**
***The NEPP Program is sponsored by the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA)***

## Outline

**NEPP Mission and Overview**
**Goals and Objectives**
**NASA Electronic Parts Assurance Group (NEPAG) – a subset of NEPP**
**Sample FY06 Tasks**
**A Proposal for a New Space Parts Advisory Committee (NSPAC)**

**Abstract:**
***The NEPP Program is responsible for developing the plans for and leading the research on reliability and radiation response in the space and aeronautics environments. Presented herein is the updated NASA task list as well as a consideration of future research areas.***** **

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## NEPP Mission

**The NEPP mission is to provide guidance to NASA for the selection and application of microelectronics technologies, to improve understanding of the risks related to the use of these technologies in the space environment and to ensure that appropriate research is performed to meet NASA mission assurance needs.**

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## NEPP Program –Goals and Objectives

**Main goal – *****Mission reliability***** to meet NASA exploration and science objectives**
***Ensure reliability of missions by “smart” investments in EEE parts technology by knowledge gathering and research***
**Minimize engineering resources required to maximize safety as well as ensure space and earth science data collection**
**NEPP objectives**
**Evaluate reliability/radiation issues of new and emerging EEE technologies *****with a focus on near to mid term needs***
**Explore failure mechanisms and technology models**
**Develop guidelines for technology usage, selection, and qualification**
**Investigate radiation hardness assurance (RHA)/reliability issues**
**Increase system reliability and reduce cost and schedule**

**“****There’s a little black spot on the sun today”**
**- A precursor to a solar particle event**

**SOHO Image**

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## NASA EEE Parts Assurance Group (NEPAG) A Subset of NEPP 

**A flexible, multi-entity, multi-national,cooperative group**
**Organized and led by NASA but includes government and non-government entities worldwide**
**Objective: ****To limit the number of EEE parts failures****both on-orbit and on the ground**
**Emphasis is on mature and already deployed technologies**
**Develops tools, shares information & resources as ****One NASA**
**Supports vendor audits, specification reviews and problem part investigations in support of US MIL system**
**Supports efforts of non government standards bodies:**
**Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) and JEDEC**
**Investigates problems and performs focused evaluations on “basic” technologies, notably passives**
**Complements NEPP focus and objectives**
***One Continuum***

**ACTEL RTSX72S FPGA**
**A part that passed “standard”**
**qualification, but requires**
**more complex testing**

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## FY06 NEPP Sample Tasks

## Radiation Effects on Volatile and Non-Volatile Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)

** **

**Description:**

**FY06 Plans:**

**Schedule/Costs:**

**Lead Center/PI: ****Ken LaBel/GSFC, Melanie Berg/MEI**
**Ray Ladbury/GSFC, Gary Swift/JPL**

**NASA and Non-NASA Organizations/Procurements:**

**Deliverables:**

- 	FPGA (field-programmable gate array) technologies continue to advance, commercially and are highly desired by NASA flight projects as either low-cost or schedule-effective alternatives to custom ICs such as ASICs. Reprogrammable devices such as FPGAs are considered enabling for future reconfigurable processing efforts for space systems.
- 	In this task, we will evaluate state-of-the-art commercial as well as new radiation hardened FPGA devices. We will also support radiation evaluation in support of developing new radiation hardened FPGA devices. Testing will be primarily focused on single events, variable frequency (including high-speed), and worst-case destructive issues. Heavy ions and/or protons will be utilized for these tests. Total ionizing dose tests may also be included.

- Test - Non-Volatile
- 	- ACTEL RTSX-SU and ACTEL RTAX-S
- 	- Aeroflex Eclipse
- 	- ACTEL RHAX250-S (radhard - pending availability)
- Test - Volatile
- 	- Xilinx Spartan-III (commercial 90nm)
- 	- Xilinx Virtex-IV
- We may also support testing of test structures for:
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Non-Volatile Rad Hard Reprogrammable FPGA development (ACTEL), and
- Air Force/MDA/NASA funded SEU Immune Reconfigurable FPGA (SIRF – Xilinx).
- A white paper on trade spaces of FPGA will be developed.
- -JPL support Xilinx SEE Consortia testing and guideline development for reprogrammable FPGAs

- Test Reports (~2-4 weeks post-test)
- Test lessons/guidance (SEE Symposium presentation)
-  Quarterly Reports
- TBD Technical papers documenting results (IEEE NSREC)
- White paper on FPGA trade space (rad hard versus performance vs...) (HEART Conference)

- Industry
- 	- Xilinx, Actel, Aeroflex – all are partners
- 	- ATK/MRC, SEAKR
- University
- 	- Vanderbilt University, BYU, U of NM (via AFRL)
- Other Government
- 	- DTRA, AFRL, MDA, NAVSEA Crane
- TBD Beam procurements (TAMU, IUCF, other)

***Related Reliability Task at JPL/GSFC***

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## Complete SEU Characterization of Virtex II-Pro FPGAs

***Complete SEU Characterization of Virtex II-Pro FPGAs***

- Inventory
- of
- Upsetable Elements
- –
- Xilinx XQR2VP40

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## First at speed SEE data on Actel RTAX-S FPGA

***First at speed SEE data on Actel RTAX-S FPGA***

**Test frequency: 15 to 150 MHz**
**Varying combinatorial logic**
**and fanout**

**Manufacturer data at 2 MHz**

***PI: Melanie Berg, MEI Technologies, mdberg@pop500.gsfc.nasa.gov***

**NEPP data up to 150 MHz (collaborative with Actel)**

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## Microelectronics Radiation Test and Evaluation(Includes NVMs, Mass Memories, Scaled CMOS)

** **

**Description:**

**FY06 Plans:**

**Schedule/Costs:**

**Lead Center/PI: GSFC/LaBel/Poivey/Oldham/Ladbury**
**Lead Center/PI: Collateral work at JPL ****	****	****	****Patterson/Johnston   **

**NASA and Non-NASA Organizations/Procurements:**

**Deliverables:**

- 	This is a continuation task for evaluating the effects of scaling (<100nm) , new materials, etc. on state-of-the-art CMOS technologies. The intent is to:
-  Determine inherent radiation tolerance and sensitivities,
-  Identify challenges for future radiation hardening efforts,
-  Investigate new failure modes and effects, and
-  Provide data to DTRA/NASA technology modeling programs.
- Testing includes total dose, single event (proton and heavy ion), and proton damage (where appropriate)
- Test vehicles are expected to be: memories (SDRAMs, SRAMs), non-volatile memories (Flash, nanocrystal, other), as well as test transistors and structures. Related data from NASA FPGA efforts will be applied as well.

- 	This is essentially a test and report task. The plan is straightforward.
- Obtain appropriate test samples via: partnering or procurement.
- Develop appropriate test setup.
- Perform radiation tests.
- Analyze test data. Investigate further new failure modes and effects
- Provide test report.
- In the case of partnering, work with the vendor on result interpretation.
- For FY06 in particular, main partnered efforts include:
- Test transistors from vendor partner and IMEC/ESA
- Test chips from LSI Logic (including “hardened” versions)
- SDRAMs from Samsung (90nm and below)
- Si Nanocrystal (and hopefully CMOS SRAM arrays) from Freescale, and,
- MRAM and CRAM tests as available
- Other potential tests include commercial Flash (Micron, other), test chips from Fujitsu, and other SDRAMs.
- IBM foundry evaluation effort pends available samples.

- Test reports
-  Quarterly reports
-  Expected submissions to SEE Symposium, IEEE NSREC, and RADECS.

- University partners: Vanderbilt University
- Other agencies: DTRA, Navsea Crane, ESA
- Industry:
-  Test chips: Vendor X, LSI Logic, possible IBM, TSMC, IMEC
-  SDRAMs: Samsung, Elpida
-  NVMs: BAE, Honeywell, Micron, Samsung, Freescale, other
-  FPGA: Xilinx, Actel, Aeroflex

***Related Reliability Tasks at JPL***

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## Radiation Effects in SiGe and OtherHigh-Speed Technologies

** **

**Description:**

**Schedule for FY05:**

**Deliverables (FY06 only):**

** ****Baseline (unhardened) technology performance  **
** ****Improved model of SEU/SET in HBTs **
** ****Improved on-orbit model for IBM 5HP devices**
** ****Test reports**
** ****Expected submissions to NSREC, RADECS, and SEE Symposium**

**SiGe microelectronics are commercially available high-speed, mixed signal technology applicable to a diverse range of digital, RF, and mixed signal wideband systems. In FY04-5, we proved this technology is extremely well suited for space with respect to ionizing radiation and particle damage issues, but problems arise due to the extreme sensitivity to soft errors. Our research has targeted these issues using collaborative test chips (including DoD-funded hardening methods) to acquire radiation effects data and support device physics and circuit level modeling. **
**In FY06, we propose to continue this effort by:**
**Testing IBM 8 and/or 9HP, National SiGe, Jazz SiGe, and other commercial processes**
**Modeling of technology for radiation and temperature effects.**

**Lead Center/PI: ****GSFC/ Paul Marshall**** **
**Co-Is: ****Ray Ladbury**

**NASA and Non-NASA Organizations/Procurements:**
**University: Georgia Tech, Auburn U., **
**Vanderbilt  **
**Industry: Mayo Foundation, Boeing**
**Other Government: SNL, NRL**

**FY06 Plans:**

- 	This task involves multiple parties providing testing (NASA), analysis and modeling (NASA, Georgia Tech, Auburn University, Vanderbilt University), and test device preparation (Mayo, Boeing)
- Radiation single event (heavy ion, proton) testing rad hard by design (RHBD) IBM 8hp shift registers designed by GT under the DARPA RHBD Program and packaged by Mayo. GT, et al to analyze data.
- Charge collection data on IBM 8HP and/or 9HP as available using SNL microbeam and/or NRL: laser. Jazz and NSC test samples will also be used as available.
- Continued TID (low dose and other) and proton damage tests on samples as available. Low dose rate data is expected by end of 1Q FY06.
- - We will also continue to seek samples of other competing technologies such as InP for comparison.
- We may also support Ron Pease in future high-speed tests as appropriate.

***Related Reliability Tasks (Extreme Temp) at NASA-GRC***

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## Radiation Effects SimulationSystem Development

** **

**Description:**

**Schedule for FY06:**

**Lead Center/PI: ****Vanderbilt/Robert Reed**** **
**Co-Is: ****Vanderbilt/Robert Weller, et al,**** ****GSFC/ Mike Xapsos**** **

**NASA and Non-NASA Organizations/Procurements :**
**University: Vanderbilt University, U of Florida**
**Industry: EMPC (Tom Jordan)**
**Other Gov: SLAC**
**Other: GEANT4 Space User’s Group, CERN, ESA,**
**CNES, Qinetix**

**Deliverables (FY06 only):**

**Several years of physics based research on radiation effect has led to well developed, conservative radiation environment models, ground-based test approaches, and performance prediction models. Recent research on emerging technology has uncovered several shortfalls in the techniques used to predict the component performance, i.e. the data cannot be collected in a way that it can be used as input to any existing model. ****A very promising approach to improving the prediction techniques involves the application and development of software ****packages to simulate radiation effects. ****The specific and immediate need is to develop Single Event Effect and displacement damage techniques.**
**FY05 and FY06 focus on first order model development.**
**The overall effort is dubbed RADSAFE and looks to tie in full circuit and system effects into a cognizant solution.**

** ****Document short falls of current radiation performance models and tools**
** ****Develop framework for user interface and models**
** ****Develop preliminary technology model for advanced CMOS **
** **

**FY06 Plans:**

**	****This is a research tool development task focused on appropriate solutions for improving radiation effects prediction capabilities for modern devices. Ex., a replacement for CREME96 for SEE rate prediction tool. In FY06, we:**
**Evaluate under another task emerging CMOS and utilize this to develop physics-based models of radiation performance**
**Utilize data on optocouplers as above.**
**Continue tool architecture to make realizable (I.e., not require weeks on a supercomputer) as well as define user needs more clearly**
**Support use of framework for aiding Rad Hard foundry product development (re: low LET tail, etc) as required.**
**Continue evaluating differing physics-based codes (GEANT4, FLUKA, etc) and developing appropriate particle models of interest for electronics technology.**

***Expected curve shape***

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## Summary Comments

**Technology needs to be strategically planned**
**Long-term needs and not point solutions**
**Mission risk revolves around radiation and reliability “unknowns”**
**Need a significant effort in advance of mission timelines for new technology development/testing/modeling**
**Infrastructure required to support technologies**
**Schedules don’t allow  time for creating new capabilities once mission design has started**
**Lower TRL technologies need evaluation as well**
**Updated tools and models are required to reduce risk of new technology insertion**
**Coordinated risk assessment group suggested (NSPAC)**
**A diatribe: Easy access to flight technology testbeds desired to validate technology modes**
***Ground-testing can mitigate some risk without flight data, but new technologies may have more complex space environment issues (synergistic environment)***

**Next Generation SOI:**
**Weak or no body ties will not**
**solve SEU problems**

**Latent damage from a single particle**
**strike can cause failures post-event**

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006

## http://nepp.nasa.gov

- NEPP Overview for Xilinx Status Meeting at NASA/GSFC preented by Ken LaBel

- Jun 26, 2006