The major breakthrough relies on the high resistance of the integrated circuits to ionizing dose radiation (>1MGy) and high energy particles. These are based on BiSS-interface, an open-source, real-time field bus protocol which brings a speed of 10 Mbps over a cable length of 100 m, safety, flexibility and minimized implementation effort.
Designed for a new radiation resistant closed-loop motion control system for remote handling applications, these circuits consist of five rad-hard system on-chips:
- an angle and position readout system
- a relay driver ASIC
- a limit switch
- a load, pressure and temperature readout system
- a bus communication ASIC
The solution comes as a game changer in terms of radiation-resistant technology and could find many applications in sensors (pressure, temperature, flow, radiation), actuators (relay drive, solenoid drive, motor drive) for harsh environments. It could also be integrated in complete systems (such as rad-hard cameras and remote handling systems) used in nuclear, space and particle accelerator industries.
Keywords:
Rad-hard ASIC – Motion control – Bus communication