Extreme Environment Electronics

John D. Cressler, H. Alan Mantooth, John D. Cressler, H. Alan Mantooth

• Editorial: CRC Press
• Año: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351832809
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Technology & Engineering
• Categoría: Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications

Unfriendly to conventional electronic devices, circuits, and systems, extreme environments represent a serious challenge to designers and mission architects. The first truly comprehensive guide to this specialized field, Extreme Environment Electronics explains the essential aspects of designing and using devices, circuits, and electronic systems intended to operate in extreme environments, including across wide temperature ranges and in radiation-intense scenarios such as space.

The Definitive Guide to Extreme Environment Electronics

Featuring contributions by some of the world's foremost experts in extreme environment electronics, the book provides in-depth information on a wide array of topics. It begins by describing the extreme conditions and then delves into a description of suitable semiconductor technologies and the modeling of devices within those technologies. It also discusses reliability issues and failure mechanisms that readers need to be aware of, as well as best practices for the design of these electronics.

Continuing beyond just the "paper design" of building blocks, the book rounds out coverage of the design realization process with verification techniques and chapters on electronic packaging for extreme environments. The final set of chapters describes actual chip-level designs for applications in energy and space exploration. Requiring only a basic background in electronics, the book combines theoretical and practical aspects in each self-contained chapter. Appendices supply additional background material.

With its broad coverage and depth, and the expertise of the contributing authors, this is an invaluable reference for engineers, scientists, and technical managers, as well as researchers and graduate students. A hands-on resource, it explores what is required to successfully operate electronics in the most demanding conditions.

I

Introduction

1 Big Picture and Some History of the Field John D. Cressler

Extreme Environment Electronics: The Big Picture

Some History of the Cryogenic Electronics Field

Some History of the Radiation Effects Field

References

2 Extreme Environments in NASA Planetary Exploration Elizabeth Kolawa, Mohammad Mojarradi, and Linda Del Castillo

Introduction to Planetary Extreme Environments

Future Planetary Exploration

Electronics for Extreme Environments: State of Practice

Impact of Extreme Environment Technologies on Future NASA Missions

Summary

References

3 Extreme Environment Electronics in NASA’s Heliophysics Vision Dana Brewer and Janet Barth

Introduction

Electronics Technology in Heliophysics Missions

4 Overview of the NASA ETDP RHESE Program Andrew S. Keys

Introduction and Context

Radiation Hardening for the Space Environment

RHESE Project Description and Tasks

Transition of RHESE Technology Tasks

References

5 Role of Extreme Environment Electronics in NASA’s Aeronautics Research Gary W. Hunter and Dennis Culley

Introduction

Distributed Engine Controls

Smart Sensor Systems

Conclusions and Future Potential

References

6 Technology Options for Extreme Environment Electronics Jonathan A. Pellish and Lewis M. Cohn

Introduction

Environments versus Technologies

Summary

References

Introduction

To properly set the stage for this book, we begin in Chapter 1, by John D. Cressler of Georgia Institute of Technology, with a general motivation of the field, the “big picture” if you will, and then follow that with a brief history. Chapter 1 sets the stage by motivating how NASA sees the extreme environment electronics picture. In Chapters 2 and 3, by Elizabeth Kolawa, Mohammad Mojarradi, and Linda Del Castillo of JPL and by Dana Brewer of NASA-HQ and Janet Barth of NASA-GSFC, NASA’s broad-based science and exploration vision is presented, together with a discussion of the requisite role to be played by extreme environment electronics in that vision. Chapter 4, by Andrew S. Keys of NASA-MSFC, highlights a very successful extreme environment electronics effort at NASA, while Chapter 5, by Gary W. Hunter and Dennis Culley of NASA-GRC, addresses the current and future needs for extreme environment electronics in NASA’s various aeronautics systems. Finally, Chapter 6, by Jonathan A. Pellish of NASA-GSFC and Lewis M. Cohn of NRL, summarizes NASA and DoD’s extensive learning on what integrated circuit technologies are best-suited for operation in NASA/DoD-relevant extreme environments, and the necessary trade-offs entailed in mission design.

1

Big Picture and Some History of the Field

John D. Cressler

Georgia Institute of Technology

1.1 Extreme Environment Electronics: The Big Picture

1.2 Some History of the Cryogenic Electronics Field

1.3 Some History of the Radiation Effects Field

References

1.1 Extreme Environment Electronics: The Big Picture

“Extreme environment” electronics represents a very important niche industry within the trillion dollar global electronics infrastructure, and entails the design and implementation of electronic devices, circuits, subsystems, and systems capable of operating robustly in environmental surroundings lying outside the traditional domain of conventional commercial or military electronics specifications. Needless to say, there are degrees of “extreme,” some of which are far more challenging than others, and some of which no one-in-their-right-mind would ever attempt! In general, extreme environment electronics’ systems are by definition low-volume, but high value–add propositions, and hence can be extremely expensive to deploy. As an example, consider putting a weather satellite up into Earth orbit to monitor hurricanes; a very extreme environment, hence very costly to put in place and operate, but exceptionally important.

So what are the prevalent extreme environments folks want to do business in? Well, extreme environments are diverse, but include, in an approximate order of importance:

• Operation in radiation-rich environments: Radiation comes in many forms, few of which are benign, and system designers must account for three major classes of radiation effects: ionization effects (high-energy charged particles that ionize materials as they pass through), displacement effects (in which high-energy particles with mass displace lattice atoms), and/or a diverse set of single event phenomena (ranging from burnout of gate oxides, to destructive latchup, to more benign digital bit flips and error propagation). The prototypical radiation-rich environment would be space, either in Earth orbit for a remote sensing satellite or perhaps a communications satellite, or interplanetary space travel, or even exploration of the outer planets as we hunt for life beyond our borders.

• Operation in low-temperature environments: In general, any temperature below the standard commercial temperature range specification (0°C to +85°C) or the military specification (mil-spec) temperature range (−55°C to +125°C) would be considered a low-temperature extreme environment. Such environments are often termed “cryogenic” environments (hence, “cryoelectronics”), so-named because of the prevalent use of liquid cryogens to achieve them (e.g., liquid nitrogen = 77.3 K = −195.9°C = −320.5°F and liquid helium = 4.2 K = −270.0°C = −452.1°F—refer to Appendix B). Some highly desirable physical effects mandate operation in cryogenic environments (e.g., superconductivity). Most planetary bodies represent cryogenic environments (e.g., the poles of Mars can reach −143°C in winter). Deep space is another example (e.g., the detector electronics of the James Webb Space Telescope [which is in the dark] operates at 27 K). In addition, many electronic instrumentation packages require operation at cryogenic temperatures in order to improve system sensitivity (e.g., transistor noise scales linearly with temperature; dark current in detector diodes decreases exponentially with temperature). Such cooled detector applications are diverse, ranging from medical imaging systems, to astronomical instruments, to satellite receivers, and even high-performance computer systems.

• Operation in high-temperature environments: In general, any temperature above the standard commercial temperature range specification (0°C to +85°C) or the mil-spec temperature range (−55°C to +125°C) would be considered a high-temperature extreme environment. Important examples include automotive electronics, various on-engine aerospace electronics systems, energy exploration (e.g., oil and gas well drilling), and the power industry. In such applications, robust operation to 200°C–300°C is often desired. Certain space exploration goals require exceptionally high temperatures (e.g., the surface temperature of Venus can reach 600°C).

• Operation in cyclic, wide-temperature range environments: Particularly in space exploration, extremes in temperature can come in the form of wide temperature ranges, which place additional constraints on system designers since then tend to be cyclic. That is, from a circuit and packaging reliability perspective, temperature swings low to high and high to low are far more challenging for ensuring long-term reliability than simply operating at a given low temperature or a given high temperature (though such needs are challenging in themselves). A classical example would be operation on the surface of the Moon, where temperature reaches +120°C in the sunlight and −180°C during the lunar night (and even down to −230°C in the shadowed polar craters). This exceptionally aggressive >300°C temperature swing is also cyclic (on a 28 day cycle) and represents one of the most challenging environments one could hope to encounter.

• Operation in vibrationally intense environments: While electronic devices and circuits are not especially sensitive to vibrations, the packaging of such components can be, and require, “shock-and-vibe” (shock-and-vibration) testing. A classical example would be the vibrational environment associated with rocket launch, but vibrations inside the drill head of a deep oil or gas well, or sensor suites placed on engines, also present challenges for long-term reliability.

• Operation in chemically corrosive environments: Classically, one packages electronic devices and circuits to protect them from chemically corrosive environments, but this can be compromised for certain applications which mandate the direct contact of parts of the device with the environment (e.g., for chemical sensors). In addition, emerging trend of placing electronics inside the human body brings this back into consideration since conventional electronics packages cannot in general be used inside the body. In this instance, the sodium contained in bodily fluids can be lethal to many types of electronic devices.

• Operation in intense magnetic field environments: Certain types of medical imaging devices (e.g., CT scans, PET scans) require operation in intense magnetic fields, and this can potentially place constraints on circuit implementations and electronics packaging.

• Operation under conditions that bring together many extreme environments: This latter catch-all environment is actually quite common and can be considered worst case. Here, one or more or even all extreme environments are brought to the table at once, thereby dramatically complicating device, circuit, and system design. The most prevalent examples exist in space exploration missions, where low-temperature, high-temperature, wide-temperature ranges, and radiation effects all necessarily must be dealt with at once.

It is a truism that extreme environments are “unfriendly” (read: toxic!) to conventional electronic devices, circuits, and systems,...