Radiation-Hardened Performance for Satellites and Lunar Space Missions

Renesas has announced a high performance single-chip 14-Bit, 1-MSPS successive-approximation-register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for radiation-hardened (rad-hard) space applications.

Renesas’ Intersil brand ISL73141SEH delivers best in class dynamic and static performance, including signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), effective number of bits (ENOB), integral non-linearity (INL) and differential non-linearity (DNL). The ADC fully resets after every sample, clearing any errors that result from a single event upset (SEU) due to heavy ion radiation during spaceflight.

The ISL73141SEH is one of the key signal-path building blocks in long duration geosynchronous / geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) communication satellites and manned spacecraft, including lunar space missions. By delivering the industry’s best dynamic and static performance, the new 14-bit ADC accurately captures real-world analog transmissions and converts them for processing in the digital domain.

The ISL73141SEH ADC is one of seven ICs, including rad-hard temperature sensor, multiplexer, quad op amp, ADC driver, LDO and voltage reference to form a complete sensor interface signal chain solution that accelerates telemetry, tracking, and control (TT&C) and flight computer system development.

“The ISL73141SEH offers satellite and spacecraft manufacturers the ultimate in ADC performance combined with a best-in-class sensor interface signal chain,” said Philip Chesley, Vice President, Industrial and Communications Business Division at Renesas. “Our space-grade 14-bit ADC delivers significantly better data converter performance than any other competing solution, and it is backed by six decades of leadership in radiation performance testing and characterization that gives spaceflight customers the mission assurance they demand.”

The space-grade ISL73141SEH is fully characterized for enhanced low dose rate-sensitivity (ELDRS) radiation performance up to 75krad(Si) for total ionizing dose (TID) and linear energy transfer (LET) up to 86MeV*cm2/mg for single event effects (SEE). The SEE testing also shows no single event latch-up (SEL) or single event burnout (SEB). In addition, single event transients (SETs) have also been mitigated by testing at an LET range up to 86MeV*cm2/mg.

Key Features

• 1-MSPS throughput rate with no data latency and no missing codes
• 5V supply, dissipates only 60mW
• High SNR of 82.1dBFS at 5V supply operation
• Operating from a 3.3V supply at 750-KSPS, dissipates only 28mW
• Single supply operation simplifies system design
• Highest dynamic performance of 13.3 ENOB, enabling > 12-bit resolution
• Superior linearity: ±0.5 LSB INL and ±0.2 LSB DNL
• Full military temperature range of -55°C to +125°C

The ISL73141SEH 14-Bit, 1-MSPS SAR ADC is at the heart of the sensor interface signal chain and connects via SPI interface to MPUs, MCUs, and/or FPGAs to digitize sensor signals in digital TT&C subsystems and flight computers. System designers are able to build the entire signal chain with Renesas’ Intersil brand analog and power ICs, including: ISL71590SEH temperature sensor; ISL70444SEH quad op amp; ISL71830SEH 16-channel low voltage multiplexer; ISL70517SEH instrumentation amp with ADC driver; ISL75052SEH high voltage LDO regulator; and ISL71091SEH40 precision, low-noise voltage reference.

The ISL73141SEH 14-bit, 1-MSPS SAR ADC is available now in a 14-lead ceramic dual flatpack package. An evaluation board is available for evaluating device features and performance.