FAQ

How long has Honeywell been in the rad-hard IC business?

Since Honeywell SSEC was established in 1965 as a captive semiconductor supplier to Honeywell, we have worked with numerous government agencies to develop technology for military applications. Since SSEC began selling externally in 1984, we have become the major electronic supplier for strategic rad-hard digital electronics. We offer SOI technologies for our ASIC, memory, mixed-signal and magnetic nonvolatile RAM product families.

Describe your overall capability.

We are a complete center for manufacturing and technology development based on a SOI CMOS foundry. We design, process, package, test and assure quality/reliability of microelectronics, sensors and transducers. We run all products on a common line to achieve cost reductions. We are a QML supplier and offer manufacturing capability for your prototype/small volume/fast turn requirements:

		220,000 total square foot facility
		Integrated Business System (MRPII)
		Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Design of Experiments (DOE)
		All processes in prototype or manufacturing under complete documentation control
		ISO-9001 certified
		Trusted Foundry
		QML

Why is Honeywell committed to Silicon On Insulator (SOI) technology?

We believe SOI offers the best dual-use solution for niche products:

		SOI meets the highest radiation requirements, inherent SEU immunity and there is no latch-up mechanism
		Best potential performance (speed, low power and density)
		Great choice for commercial space-excellent speed/power product
		Higher density and wafer leverage means lower cost
		Great choice for military/avionics markets

What are your current technologies and SOI manufacturing capabilities?

Today we manufacture HX2000 SOI-IV and HX3000 SOI-V technology on the 6" line at Honeywell Aerospace Plymouth. HX5000 SOI-VII rad-tolerant technology is currently being developed on our 150 nm 8" line.

What is your definition of rad-hard and rad-tolerant?

The boundary between rad-hard and rad-tolerant is often vague. There are several categories that radiation effects are broken into: Total Ionizing Dose (TID), Dose Rate Upset (DRU), Dose Rate Survivability (DRS), Single Event Latch-Up (SEL), Single Event Upset (SEU) and Neutron Fluence Hardness. Depending on the manufacturer, these levels can vary widely and still be labeled rad-hard or rad-tolerant. Honeywell supports very high radiation hardness specifications, so what we refer to as radiation tolerant may be considered radiation hardened by other manufacturers.

Honeywell defines the radiation levels as: strategic rad-hard, rad-hard and rad-tolerant. The following table describes the differences:

Radiation Tolerant Radiation Hardened Strategic Rad-Hard Total Dose < 300 Krad(Si) 300 Krad(Si)- 1 Mrad(Si) > 1 Mrad(Si) Dose Rate Upset < 107 rads(SiO2)/s 107 - 1010 rads(SiO2)/s > 1010 rads(SiO2)/s Dose Rate Survivability < 1010 rads(SiO2)/s 1010 - 1012 rads(SiO2)/s > 1012 rads(SiO2)/s Single Event Upset > 10-10 errors/bit-day* 10-10 - 10-11 errors/bit-day* < 10-11 errors/bit-day* Single Event Latchup immune immune immune Neutron < 1012 MeV-cm2/mg 1012 - 1014 MeV-cm2/mg > 1014 MeV-cm2/mg

Honeywell offers what Standard Products?

We offer memory, micro-controllers and a variety of other standard IC's. We are continually looking to expand our offerings and welcome customer requests. Our current offering includes:

		256K, 1M, 4M, 16M and 64M SOI rad-hard SRAMs
		36K FIFO
		1750A and Power-PC 603e micro-controllers
		HMXADC9225 ADC

Describe Honeywells family of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

Three digital ASIC families are available:

		HX2000 SOI CMOS featuring up to 400K available gates, 3 and 4 layers of metal.
		HX3000 SOI CMOS featuring up to 1.5M available gates, 4 layers of metal
		HX4000 SOI CMOS featuring up to 5M available gates, 5 layers of metal
		HX5000 SOI CMOS featuring up to >10M available gates, 6 layers of metal - available as rad hard

Key features include:

		Both gate array (sea-of-transistors) and standard cell offerings
		CMOS, TTL, Schmitt Trigger, PCI, LVDS Gbps SerDes I/O interface levels
		QML qualified
		Custom drop in RAM, ROM or custom design available
		Robust cell and macro library
		Multiple or single power supply capability at 5V/3.3V/2.5V, 3.3V/2.5V, 2.5V/1.8V or 1.8V/1.5V
		Cold Sparing capability for zero power redundancy

...

Why is QML status of value?

QML, or Qualified Manufacturers List, is a US government standard (MIL-1-38535) for the fabrication assembly of integrated circuits. It is equivalent to QPL (MIL-STD-38510) and holds us to exacting criteria:

		QML requires design, wafer fabrication, assembly and test processes to be qualified.
		QML qualifies all products of the qualified technology because they are under the same controls.

Can Honeywell handle classified designs?

Yes, we have facilities and resources especially available for classified designs. Several classified designs have been developed and continue to be developed at our facility.

What IC packages are offered and supported?

Current packages include: ceramic quad flatpack (CQFP), dimpled ball grid array (DBGA), ceramic dual flat pack (CDFP) and pin grid array (PGA). Additional packages, such as flip chip are being investigated and will be available to support customer needs.