COTS technologies and scalable solutions are increasingly used in space applications. To help system designers in better integration and higher performance while reducing development costs and time to market, Microchip Technology has expanded its radiation-hardened Arm Microcontroller family with new devices. The company has announced the qualification of its SAMRH71 Arm-based microprocessor (MPU) and the availability of the SAMRH707 microcontroller (MCU), both implementing Arm Cortex-M7-based SoC radiation-hardened technology.
The Arm Cortex M7-based rad-hard SAMRH71 microprocessor provides a combination of space connectivity interfaces along with high-performance architecture with more than 200 Dhrystone MIPS (DMIPS). Using this device, the developers don’t have to implement heavy mitigation techniques as is required for non-space components.
The SAMRH71 microprocessor on the other hand is designed for high-level radiation performance, extreme temperatures, and high reliability. This Arm Cortex-M7 core-based device comes with high-bandwidth communication interfaces such as SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553, CAN FD, and Ethernet with IEEE 1588 Generalized Precision Time Protocol (gPTP) capabilities. The device is fully ESCC qualified with support from CNES and compliant with MIL standard Class V and Q high-reliability grades, allowing systems to meet strict compliance requirements.
Relying on the standard Arm Cortex-M7 architecture and the same peripherals as automotive and industrial processors, these devices provide system development cost and schedule optimization by leveraging standard software and hardware tools from the consumer devices. Both SAMRH71 microprocessor and SAMRH707 microcontroller are developed with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, to further research and program initiatives.
The SAMRH71 in a ceramic package is available in volume production quantities with QMLQ (SAMRH71F20C-7GB-MQ) and QMLV (SAMRH71F20C-7GB-SV) equivalent qualification levels. It is available for printed circuit board design or evaluation in Ball Grid Array (BGA) plastic packaging for applications that require high volumes and cost-optimized structures, The SAMRH707 in a CQFP164 ceramic package is currently sampling (SAMRH707F18A-DRB-E).
