To fully utilize powerful next-generation space processors like Maestro, high-density, high-bandwidth memories, such as DDR2 SDRAMs, are required. Current Rad-Hard by Process (RHBP) memories are slow and low-density, while commercial DDR2 SDRAMs suffer from frequent failures due to Total Ionizing Dose (TID), Single-Event Latchup (SEL), and Single-Event Functional Interrupts (SEFIs). To solve this problem, Boeing Solid-State Electronics Development (SSED) is developing the world's first fault-tolerant, Rad-Hard By Design (RHBD) DDR2 SDRAM based on IBM's 32SOI CMOS embedded DRAM (eDRAM) macro.
Boeing's first radiation-hardened DDR2 SDRAM, dubbed "RHDDR2", will be a 1Gb single-die, JEDEC-compliant DDR2 SDRAM in a space-qualifiable ceramic CGA package. RHDDR2 will be latchup-immune, rad-hard to strategic TID levels, and will have Single-Event Upset (SEU) rates equivalent to today's RHBP memories. Boeing plans to incorporate several power management and fault-tolerance features into RHDDR2, making it the memory solution that designers of tomorrow's fault-tolerant space processor systems have been waiting for.