July 16, 2012 -- The Microsemi SoC Products Group has announced that an independent organization providing technical and scientific research, development and advisory services to national security space programs has completed reliability testing of Microsemi's commercial-grade Axcelerator FPGAs. The tests lasted more than four years with an accumulated total of more than 26 million device-hours of testing without a single antifuse failure.

Microsemi's FPGAs are the commercial equivalent of Microsemi's space-flight RTAX-S/ SL FPGAs and share the same CMOS structures, antifuse technology, materials, processing, dimensions and programming attributes. The RTAX-S/ SL FPGAs are also radiation-tolerant and include flip-flops protected against radiation-induced upsets by built-in triple-module redundancy (TMR).

The testing process involved programming parts with a stringent design featuring excellent observability of failure mechanisms prior to the start of the tests. In addition, the tests included a combination of high-temperature operating life (HTOL), low-temperature operating life (LTOL) and temperature-cycle tests.

Microsemi's RTAX-S/ SL radiation-tolerant FPGAs are specifically designed for space applications using highly reliable and non-volatile antifuse technology, which, unlike SRAM FPGAs, does not require costly and complex mitigation to prevent configuration upsets induced by radiation. They are offered in densities of up to 4 million equivalent system gates and 840 user I/Os. Additional features include hot-swap and cold-sparing capabilities. For space applications that have a need for lower standby current, Microsemi RTAX-SL FPGAs have less than half the standby current of the standard product at worst-case conditions.

Additional features include:

Posted by: John Miklosz