Infineon Technologies LLC announced the availability of the space industry’s first radiation-hardened (rad-hard), serial interface Ferroelectric RAM (F-RAM) for extreme environments. The new devices deliver unsurpassed reliability and data retention and are more energy-efficient than non-volatile EEPROM and serial NOR Flash devices for space applications.

The addition of a QML-V qualified F-RAM to Infineon’s memory portfolio makes the benefits of nearly infinite endurance, instant non-volatile write technology, and over 100-year data retention available to space applications. As a direct replacement for serial NOR flash and EEPROMs, rad-hard F-RAM is ideal for data logging of mission-critical data, telemetry storage, and command and control calibration data storage. The new device is also ideal for providing boot code storage solutions for microcontrollers, FPGAs and ASICs.

Support for the industry-standard Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) protocol improves ease of use and supports a smaller footprint and lower pin count. Serial protocols are increasingly used in satellite and space applications, with multiple suppliers now offering SPI-capable space-grade processors, FPGAs and ASICs.

The 2 Mb density F-RAM with SPI is the first in its family of rad-hard non-volatile F-RAMs. The devices have virtually infinite endurance with no wear leveling, with 10 trillion read/write cycles and 120 years of data retention at 85°C, at an operating voltage range of 2.0 V to 3.6 V. The lowest operating current is 10 mA maximum, with an extreme low programming voltage of 2 V.

The rad-hard F-RAMs are also suitable for avionic and other applications that require military standard temperature grades reaching from -55°C to 125°C. Additional features include a small footprint with 16-in ceramic SOP packaging. The DLAM QML-V qualified devices have superior radiation performance of: TID: >150 Krad (Si);  SEL: >114 MeV·cm ²/mg @115°C;  SEU: Immune; SEFI: <1.34 * 10-4 err/dev.day;

The 2 Mb rad-hard, non-volatile serial interface F-RAMs are available now.