DEMOCRITUS UNIVERSITY OF THRACESPACE RESEARCH LABORATORY

 The Space Research Laboratory of the Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH/SRL) in Xanthi, Greece, has extensive experience (over 30 yrs) in the Development of Space Instruments and Subsystems through its participation as P-I or Co-I in a long series of International Space Missions including: ULYSSES, GEOTAIL, INTERBALL TAIL (Main Probe and Sub-satellite), INTERBALL AURORA (Main Probe and Sub-satellite), ACE, CLUSTER-II.

Most importantly DUTH/SRL has acquired 18 years expertise in the development of Rad-Hard Sensor Interface ASICs and Systems-on-a-Chip (SoC), which have been used for several pioneering NASA Missions including: CASSINI, IMAGE,

MESSENGER, STEREO, Pluto New Horizons, etc.

Recently DUTH/SRL is actively involved with the development of Rad-Hard Sensor Interface ASICs for ESA

“ISTP”International Solar Terrestrial ProgrammeDUTH/SRL Participation w. experiments on 12 S/C

ULYSSES

INTERBALLDUTH/SRL Participation in DOK-2 Instrument

ACE/EPAM Experiment

DUTH/SRL Activities in the development of Advanced Space Instruments and Systems

Space Science Instruments: Energy and time measurements for radiation detection and imaging (Particle and fields instruments, x-ray, gamma-ray, UV-Imaging), Laser Altimeter, TOF Mass Spectrometer Instruments. Spacecraft Electronics: Localized & Distributed Smart Sensor Data Acquisition and Controls, Housekeeping. Analog-Digital Integrated Circuits and system on a chip: Full-custom, rad-hard, technology independent layout design, Design for Testability.

DEMOCRITUS UNIVERSITY OF THRACESPACE RESEARCH LABORATORY

 

Integrated Circuits for Space Applications

 During the last 18 years the Space Research Laboratory of the Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH/SRL) has acquired pioneering expertise in the development of new radiation-hardened, low power, space qualified mixed Analog/Digital microelectronics devices for spacecraft instruments and subsystems.

The expertise encompasses the Design, Simulation, Verification, Testing, Packaging and Space Qualification of dedicated ASICs, which are used for the end-to-end development of bigger subsystems.

DUTH/SRL Advanced ASICs for Space Heritage

DUTH/SRL in cooperation with the Space Department of the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University (APL/JHU) was successfully involved in several Advanced Space Technology projects for a series of NASA’s New Missions including:

• CASSINI, • IMAGE, • CONTOUR, • MESSENGER, • NEW HORIZONS, • JIMO (Europa Orbiter), • STEREO.

with DUTH/SRL personnel both on-site at APL and at the University of Thrace

DEMOCRITUS UNIVERSITY OF THRACESPACE RESEARCH LABORATORY

 

 Temperature Remote Input Output (TRIO) Data Acquisition System on a Chip.

TRIO is a versatile low power mixed signal data acquisition ASIC device suitable for S/C Housekeeping monitoring the health status of spacecraft & science instruments.

TRIO can also be used as a general purpose ADC. The chip has been fabricated on a 0.8 μm CMOS process.

The TRIO Smart Sensor Chip has been selected as an integral part of NASA’s X-2000 advanced technology generic spacecraft. Several hundred TRIO Devices are now used in a number of exploratory space missions.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AEROSPACE AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS VOL. 40, No. 3 JULY 2004, p862

Time of Flight (TOF) Chip

The Time of Flight Chip consists of two main cores: • Dual channel Constant Fraction Discriminator (CFD) • Time to Digital Converter (TDC).

The CFD is also fabricated as a stand-alone chip. The TDC measures time intervals with a maximum of 50ps resolution. The pulse shrinking method is used for the digitization of the time interval between a start and a stop input pulse. The TDC has a dynamic range of 11 bits and power consumption below 20 mW at an event rate of 500 Kevents/sec. The chip was designed to operate in a wide temperature and power supply range, and for a wide LSB range (tested 50 - 800 ps). High counting rate (over 1Mevents/sec for LSB=100ps) was also a priority. The TOF chip is used in the HENA (High Energy Neutral Atoms) instrument of the IMAGE NASA mission

Constant Fraction Discriminator (CFD) Chip The Constant Fraction Discriminator (CFD) chip is a two-channel time pick-off circuit. The device targets a broad class of science instruments that use the TOF principle such as particle spectrometers, delay line position sensing etc.

In a typical application the start-stop events are generated by secondary electrons or photons hitting a micro-channel plate (MCP) that provides an amplification of ~10E5 to 10E6. Typical input dynamic range is 1:100.

Four CFD devices fabricated in a 0.8μ CMOS technology are already flying on the NASA/IMAGE mission as part of the High Energy Neutral Atom (HENA) imaging instrument that measures particle energy and species in the range 10 KeV to 1MeV.

The CFD is baselined for several instruments on a number of missions including Messenger and New Horizons.

The Energy Readout Chip

The chip includes CSA with JFET option, a shaper and a peak detector. A separate ADC ASIC is also developed to complete the channel.

The first prototype chips are fabricated in 0.8μ and 0.5μ CMOS process. Preliminary results indicate ~3 KeV FWHM noise with a ~10 pf detector capacitance, ~2 μs peaking time constant and ~10 mW per channel.

There are several variations of this development for the diverse scientific requirements of the differed missions. A highly integrated low power version has been used for the NASA New-Horizons mission to Pluto.

Pressure Sensor Interface ASIC

pSIF-ASIC

DUTH/SRLETS

Pressure Sensor Interface ASIC

The goal of the project is to design, fabricate, test and qualify for space flight an ASIC that will interface the PRESENS Pressure Sensor Element.

ASIC Functionality:• Digitize the sensor output voltages by a high resolution 14(+1)-bit ADC.• Bias the sensor with either a constant voltage or a constant current.• Interface up to 4 pressure sensing elements (SIF up to 32). • Store in an internal memory and transmit to an external μ- controller the digitized sensor data through a parallel and serial interface.• Provide a bandgap reference voltage

DUTH/SRLETS

Pressure Sensor Interface ASIC

pSIF-ASIC CHARACTERISTICS 

Accuracy: 15 bits

Bandwidth: > 500 KHz

Radiation Tolerance: TID: > 1 Mrad, SEE Hardness Level: LET > 120 MeV/cm2.mg

Power Dissipation: ~5 mW @ fin = 500KHz

Power supply: 2.5 or 3.3 V (Internal Voltage Regulator)

Temperature Range: -55 to +125 deg C

Technology: 0.25 μm UMC

Size: ~ 4.6 mm X 4.9 mm = 22.5 mm2

DUTH/SRLETS