Military Embedded Systems June 2021

@military_cots

John McHale

Mil Tech Trends

The DoD’s AI-innovation challenge

Industry Spotlight

Rad-hard microelectronics trends

Industry Spotlight

Radiation: the enemy of electronics www.MilitaryEmbedded.com

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Returning U.S. semiconductor production

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June 2021 | Volume 17 | Number 4

LEVERAGING

SMALL SATS FOR DEFENSE: A MATTER OF COMMODITIZATION P 12

P 24 The future of human-AI systems is already here – it’s just not evenly architected

By Clodéric Mars, AI Redefined

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 12

June 2021 Volume 17 | Number 4

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COLUMNS Editor’s Perspective 5 Returning IC manufacturing to U.S. shores

By John McHale

Mil Tech Insider 7 Newer rugged touch screens benefit the modern warfighter

By Richard Pollard

THE LATEST

FEATURES PERSPECTIVES: Executive Interview 10 GaN in space, military RF trends Q&A with Dean White, senior director of Defense and Aerospace for Qorvo

By John McHale, Group Editorial Director

SPECIAL REPORT: Small sats 12 Leveraging small sats for defense: A matter of commoditization

By Emma Helfrich, Technology Editor

Defense Tech Wire 8 By Emma Helfrich Connecting with Mil Embedded 46 By Mil Embedded Staff

16 SDRs for satellites

By Victor Wollesen and Etiido Uko, Per Vices

MIL TECH TRENDS: Enabling artificial intelligence in military systems 20 DoD must innovate in AI by 2025

By Sally Cole, Senior Editor 24 The future of human-AI systems is already here – it’s just not evenly architected

By Clodéric Mars, AI Redefined 26 Enabling AI at the tactical edge

By David Huisenga and Wade Johnston, Klas

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: Rad-hard electronics design trends 30 Rad-hard microelectronics demand on the rise in military, commercial markets

By John McHale, Group Editorial Director 7

WEB RESOURCES Subscribe to the magazine or E-letter Live industry news | Submit new products http://submit.opensystemsmedia.com WHITE PAPERS – Read: https://militaryembedded.com/whitepapers WHITE PAPERS – Submit: http://submit.opensystemsmedia.com

36 How a robust FPGA supply chain assures defense industry preparedness

By Martin Hart, TopLine Corp.

40 Radiation single-event effects: the invisible enemy

By Richard Sharp and Malcolm Thomson, Radiation Test Solutions 42 New solutions to radiation-hardened mixed-signal integration

By James C. Kemerling, Triad Semiconductor 44 Parts, materials, and processes (PMP) and radiation hardening for space and

defense systems

By Barry A. Posey and Bryan F. Hughes, Scientic

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ON THE COVER: Small satellites (small sats): Definitely not a one-trick pony.

The flexibility in the designs of these systems has solidified their place in both space communities and their corresponding markets.

Their versatility has also encouraged significant investment and ingenuity amid resolute pushes to lower cost and speed deployment.

Cover image: Artist’s rendering of L3Harris small satellites in orbit. https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1864255/

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EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE

Returning IC manufacturing to U.S. shores

By John McHale, Editorial Director Supply cycles these days are slow whether you are buying lawn furniture, lumber, raw materials, or mission-critical microelectronics. Reasons range from the pandemic and the resulting economic slowdown to the Suez Canal blockage to tariffs. You name it, you order it, you likely have to wait months to get it.

While homeowners can suck it up and wait for their Adirondack chairs, the U.S. military is uncomfortable depending on international suppliers for the integrated circuits (ICs) needed for defense-related satellites, radar, and electronic warfare systems.

The roots of IC offshore manufacturing headaches can be traced back to the 1990s, when much of U.S. semiconductor manufacturing expertise started leaving North America in search of the lower labor costs found in alternative locations like Taiwan.

Running a foundry is enormously expensive without government help. Strategic radiation-hardened foundries like those owned by BAE Systems in Virginia and Honeywell in Minnesota were supported by U.S. government dollars and so survived the exodus. Others either went under or moved their IC production overseas.

Fast-forward 25 years to 2021, where global conditions are fueling a push to return semiconductor manufacturing to U.S. shores. “Companies are finding it hard to get their hands on electronics across multiple industries,” says Anton Quiroz, CEO of Apogee Semiconductor. “This climate actually started just before the pandemic, but the pandemic definitely compounded it.”

Domestic pressure has been building to return the capability to the U.S., but those 1990s economic challenges remain.

“Domestic production is very focused on lower-cost ways respond to military needs,” says Dave Young, CTO for Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES). Bringing semiconductor manufacturing onshore “means competitiveness from a cost standpoint will be challenging,” he continues. “But it needed a kick-start, as we are seeing lead times taking as long 18 months and need all avenues for our disposal to meet demands.” CAES, which historically has been foundry-agnostic, now partners with the SkyWater Technology foundry in Bloomington, Minnesota, for U.S.-based strategic rad-hard manufacturing, Young adds.

John.McHale@opensysmedia.com

“Taiwanese contract manufacturers account for two-thirds of global chip sales,” according to an article in the May 1-7 issue of the Economist titled “Living on the Edge.” The largest of these is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which has pledged to open a foundry in Arizona in 2024. Even with that expansion, though, the company still maintains most of its expertise in its home location, with about “90% of its 56,800 staff … based in Taiwan,” according to the Economist article.

Not content to rely on TSMC’s plans – nor those of other domestic and international companies pledging to expand manufacturing in the U.S. – the DoD is increasing funding for domestic microelectronics production. That investment is necessary for our onshore IC production to succeed. “For, example the Air Force’s FY 2022 budget request calls for $885 million for commercial microelectronics,” says Larry Hayden, senior director, sales and business development, Vorago Technologies.

“This isn’t the first time there has been a push to increase U.S. semiconductor manufacturing,” he says. “In the past these have been seen as fads, but what is unique this time is the significant investment from a variety of sources – from the U.S. government to Intel to global foundries – into U.S. facilities.”

Enabling a trusted supply chain also motivates DoD microelectronics funding. As former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord said in a DOD News article last year on defense.gov, “We can no longer clearly identify the pedigree of our microelectronics. Therefore, we can no longer ensure that backdoors, malicious code or data exfiltration commands aren’t embedded in our code.”

Rebuilding that trust by returning manufacturing to U.S. territory won’t happen overnight, so companies must strategize to work around these shortages and ensure dependable supply chains.

Economic pressures are substantial, but geopolitical concerns also concern U.S. government officials and their allies, as most of the world’s microelectronics technology is dependent on semiconductor foundries located offshore in Taiwan.

“Thanks to tariffs and other delays, even our strongest suppliers have gone from eight weeks to 30 weeks for their delivery timetables,” says Marti McCurdy, owner and CEO of Spirit Electronics.

“We are trying not to play into any of that. We work to make sure the most critical programs do not get shortchanged on supply by planning 12 months ahead for such situations. Our suppliermanaged inventory program is helping secure the supply chain with projected forecasting and placing orders to secure a solid backlog with our suppliers even though the lead time is long.”

While the U.S. is friendly with Taiwan, China still considers Taiwan part of China and they want it back. A potential war over Taiwan’s independence leaves U.S. officials quite concerned.

For more from McCurdy, Hayden, Young, and Quiroz, see our Industry Spotlight article on trends in rad-hard electronics on page 30.

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June 2021

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ADVERTISERS PAGE

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GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR John McHale john.mchale@opensysmedia.com ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Lisa Daigle lisa.daigle@opensysmedia.com SENIOR EDITOR Sally Cole sally.cole@opensysmedia.com TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Emma Helfrich emma.helfrich@opensysmedia.com ONLINE EVENTS MANAGER Josh Steiger josh.steiger@opensysmedia.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Stephanie Sweet stephanie.sweet@opensysmedia.com SENIOR WEB DEVELOPER Aaron Ganschow aaron.ganschow@opensysmedia.com WEB DEVELOPER Paul Nelson paul.nelson@opensysmedia.com CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER Joann Toth joann.toth@opensysmedia.com EMAIL MARKETING SPECIALIST Drew Kaufman drew.kaufman@opensysmedia.com VITA EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jerry Gipper jerry.gipper@opensysmedia.com

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MIL TECH INSIDER

Newer rugged touch screens benefit the modern warfighter

By Richard Pollard An industry perspective from Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions Until we’ve mastered the science of brainwave communications, vision and touch will remain the fundamental ways that users interface with avionics and vetronics systems. Today’s modern warfighters have grown up with smartphones and tablets with intuitive, multitouch projected capacitive (PCAP) touch screens. They rely heavily on these devices in their personal lives and they expect to have access to the same capabilities and conveniences in the field.

To date, the industry has relied primarily on ruggedized resistive touch screens, because resistive screens can be used while wearing gloves and don’t create interference issues. The limitations of early PCAP touch screens made them virtually unusable on defense and aerospace platforms. However, those issues have since been overcome. This progress means that rugged military displays can now provide users with the same familiar interface that they use with their smartphones and tablet devices.

PCAP versus resistive touch Two layers of electrodes separated by an air gap sit just behind the screen in a resistive touch screen, with tiny plastic microbeads used to maintain the air gap between the electrode layers. To register a touch, users must apply enough pressure to the screen to squeeze the microbeads together so the two layers of electrodes touch.

In contrast, a PCAP touch screen is composed of solidly bonded optical screen layers. As a result, there is no air gap or microbeads that must be depressed.

Instead, the screen detects and reacts to the static electrical charge of the object that touches it.

Clarity, contrast, and readability Because they don’t include an air gap between screen layers or plastic microbeads, PCAP touch screens don’t suffer from the reflection and image clarity www.militaryembedded.com

issues that resistive touch screens experience. They provide a crisper, higherquality image and higher contrast levels that make it easier for the user to see and absorb screen content at a glance.

With PCAP touch screens, the user doesn’t need to worry about consistently applying the right level of pressure to the screen. Instead, they can simply slide their fingers across the screen using the same intuitive, multitouch gestures they are already familiar with to drag screen objects, zoom in and out of images, and swipe in all directions.

Gloves on In the past, PCAP touch screens required users to interact with the screen with their bare hands. This requirement has obvious limitations for warfighters who are often exposed to extremely harsh environmental conditions and potentially dangerous equipment where gloves are mandatory for personal protection.

While capacitive gloves are available, they are not known for their warmth or protective properties. Today, users can successfully interact with PCAP touch screens, even while wearing heavy winter or safety gloves.

The same advances in computer processing, algorithms, and electronic intelligence that enable users to wear gloves also enable PCAP touch screens to distinguish between a touch action and a drop of water falling on the screen. PCAP touch screens are now smart enough to ignore a few drops of water on the screen. While the areas of the screen with the water drops cannot be used, the rest of the screen functions normally.

Resolving EMI and RFI issues EMI and RFI issues were formerly some of the biggest obstacles to using PCAP touch screens in defense and aerospace applications. Because PCAP touch screens use electronically driven liquid crystal displays (LCD), processors, backlighting,

Figure 1 | High-contrast PCAP touch screens can now be used in many rugged military applications. Curtiss-Wright image.

and power supplies, they generate electrical noise. However, with advanced signal filtering and specialized grounding, some PCAP touch screens now comply with MIL-STD-461F (for radiated emissions and electromagnetic compatibility) and MIL-STE-1275E (for electrostatic discharge) standards.

PCAP touch screens can be confidently deployed on platforms exposed to extreme temperatures, high vibration levels, and severe weather conditions.

Those that comply with MIL-STD-810G (for environmental engineering design and testing) provide an IP65 level of ingress protection from dirt, moisture, and other contaminants.

The Curtiss-Wright Ground Vehicle Display Unit (GVDU) and Single Video Display Unit with Multi-touch (SVDU-M) PCAP touch screens are examples of high-contrast PCAP displays that deliver high functionality for warfighters with lower size, weight, power, and cost for easier integration. (Figure 1.)

Richard Pollard is a senior product manager for Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions.

Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions https://www.curtisswrightds.com/

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

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DEFENSE TECH WIRE NEWS | TRENDS | DOD SPENDS | CONTRACTS | TECHNOLOGY UPDATES

By Emma Helfrich, Technology Editor

COTS open-architecture modules from Curtiss-Wright will upgrade F-22 avionics, mission-processing systems

Figure 1 | U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Tiffany A. Emery.

Curtiss-Wright has won a contract with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics to supply its rugged commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processor module technology to upgrade the U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor tactical fighter aircraft. Operating under the terms of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) mandated Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), Curtiss-Wright is supplying its open standards-based processor card to upgrade the aircraft’s central integrated processor (CIP), which enables data and signal processing for the F-22’s radar, sensors, electronic warfare (EW), and other compute-intensive systems.

During the selection phase, the processor module went through an extensive durability test program to meet the F-22 Raptor’s extreme environmental requirements. The module also provides support for trusted and secure computing hardware and software protections. Under the contract, shipments of the modules began in the last quarter of 2020 and are scheduled to run through 2023.

AI and machine learning to improve mission readiness under AFRL contract

SparkCognition Government Systems (SGS) has won a contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Through this contract, SGS will leverage commercial and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to explore the uses of machine learning (ML) to enhance aspects of mission readiness.

ML is intended to take a more data-driven approach, require less manual recalibration, and produce an outcome with a higher confidence level than the current methodology provides. Through its contract in under the SBIR program, SGS will aim to explore the capabilities of AI/ML to create a tool to improve the effectiveness of manpower planning and decision optimization. Officials also state that AFRL and AFWERX – a program set up to foster innovation – have partnered to streamline the SBIR process in an attempt to speed up the experience, broaden the pool of potential applicants, and decrease bureaucratic overhead.

Advanced reconnaissance vehicles to be equipped with 360° vision suites

The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) Systems Command is working toward the next phase of replacing the aging fleet of light armored vehicles with a modern advanced reconnaissance vehicle (ARV). Elbit Systems of America has teamed with Textron Systems to produce a solution aimed at providing Marines with capabilities including enhanced situational situational-understanding technologies.

Building on its IronVision and gimbaled sight solutions, Elbit intends to make the 360-degree situational-awareness vision suite for the Textron-built Cottonmouth prototype ARV. The system is designed to bring together video images from outside the ARV, overlay terrain and obstacle information along with navigation and battlespace symbology, and present a single image of the ARV’s surroundings to all crew members within the vehicle. The view will be available both on crew workstations and the IronVision Helmet Mounted Display.

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MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Figure 2 | Elbit Systems photo.

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PERSPECTIVES

Executive Interview

GaN in space, military RF trends

By John McHale, Editorial Director Satellites, spacecraft, and communications systems are leveraging the performance benefits of gallium nitride (GaN) RF components as demonstrated by the successful landing of the Mars Perseverance Rover. GaN also fuels innovation in military electronic warfare and radar systems. Dean White, senior director of Defense and Aerospace for Qorvo, discussed these trends with me in the following Q&A. We also covered the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the U.S. semiconductor industry, military funding, and the engineering recruitment in the defense industry.

Edited excerpts follow.

MIL-EMBEDDED: Please provide a brief description of your responsibility within Qorvo and your group’s role within the company.

WHITE: I have [profit and loss] responsibility for Qorvo’s Defense & Aerospace (D&A) business and provide guidance for its strategic direction based on market needs, technology trends, and customer feedback. The Defense and Aerospace division [plays] a vital role for the entire company in terms of developing new and innovative products and manufacturing processes that push the limits of form, fit, function, performance, and cost. These breakthroughs are routinely shared across business units to benefit the entire company. [We] combine gallium nitride (GaN) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) in a single multi-chip module (MCM), making it perfect for defense applications that require reduction in size, weight, and power (SWaP). A key example of this is evidenced by the recent awarding of the Navy SHIP RF (state-of-the-art heterogeneous integrated packaging) contract to Qorvo.

Qorvo made news with the landing of the Mars Perseverance Rover, as GaN and other components are used in the rover systems. What are the unique requirements for RF components leveraged in space applications?

First and foremost, quality and reliability are at the top of the list for space applications since you only get one chance to get it right. Running a very close second is performance. It’s not good enough to just survive in space, you need to be able to deliver on performance as well. With today’s increasing number of satellites and orbital communications networks it is vital to maintain signal strength and integrity to ensure reliable high-performance communications. Qorvo has been in the space business for over 25 years, so we understand that where you operate in space makes a big difference on the type of screening required for space-bound products.

How do you manage the radiation-hardening of your ICs? The level of radiation screening is determined by the customer requirements and the intended space application. Qorvo does not specifically “manage” the radiationhardening of the GaAs and GaN products. We have radiation data on select products as well as third-party data on select products from different GaAs and GaN processes that give us confidence that the parts are rad-hard to a given level. CMOS products are designed specifically for rad-hard levels depending on application and orbit.

GaN continues to be the hottest tech in the industry. Does GaN technology have any unique properties that enable performance in space systems? Which defense applications are leveraging GaN the most and why?

We have traditionally used GaAs for space-based devices, but we see a growing demand and need for GaN in space. There is growing interest from our customers to use GaN devices in their applications because it offers higher power density and higher operating

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MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Dean White voltages that can have a positive impact on SWaP-C [size, weight, power, and cost] for the overall system. GaN power amplifiers are also being used in space applications in place of traveling wave tubes (TWTs) because they have higher reliability. Defense radar, electronic warfare (EW), and communications system OEMs are rapidly adopting GaN technology in their next-generation designs.

With recent improvements in output power, efficiencies, and bandwidth, GaN power amplifiers are at the center of the radar, EW, and communications revolution. Qorvo recently released a 2-20 GHz GaN power amplifier with > 20 W of saturated output power. But the technology breakthrough we are most excited about is the recently released electronically reconfigurable dual-band (S-X bands) PA (QPA0007). This new technology will revolutionize how radar and EW systems are designed in the future.

How do GaN and LDMOS [laterally diffused metal-oxide semiconductor] compare?

The choice between GaN and LDMOS depends strongly on the application need and the program’s priorities. Performance, development cost, and fielded operational cost of the system must be considered. GaN has significantly higher power density than LDMOS, which reduces parasitic capacitance, allowing for higher fractional bandwidths and increased efficiency. At S-band and above, GaN is the primary solution due to operation www.militaryembedded.com

frequency, power density, higher efficiency, and module size. At frequencies below 2.5 GHz, the delta in efficiency between LDMOS and GaN is lower than that above 2.5 GHz, but GaN can support larger fractional bandwidth applications, has higher efficiency, and with high reliability has been shown to have lower fielded operational cost versus LDMOS. In the past LDMOS has had a much lower development cost for material, but as time passes the gap between GaN and LDMOS is narrowing quickly.

RF and microwave technology fuel much of the radar technology development in the military market, but the automotive radar market promises even larger growth.

How is innovation in automotive radar driving military RF and microwave designs?

All radar is not created equal. It is true that much of radar development in the past has been funded by the defense industry. Radars for defense and automotive applications are very different, even though the intended result is similar. Defense-based radars generally operate at much higher RF power and across a wide spectrum of frequencies depending on the application, while automotive-based radar operates at lower RF power and over a relatively narrow band of frequencies. Defense radar systems are generally very large, heavy, and expensive, whereas automotive systems need to be small, lightweight, and inexpensive. As you can see, these two models are diametrically opposed. However, what we see happening today is these two models beginning to slowly converge to where defense systems are getting smaller and lighter and automotive systems are getting smarter and more capable. Due to economic and competitive pressures, automakers have had to do some innovative things to put radar technology in cars and I think the Department of Defense (DoD) and primes are taking a hard look at how they can reduce the size and weight of their own systems based on these innovations. In the defense industry it is all about SWaP reduction and the auto industry is already doing that effectively.

Has the pandemic impacted the semiconductor market in the U.S.? Do you see more requirements for “made in the U.S.” due to supply-chain concerns?

Yes, it is safe to say the pandemic has affected virtually every aspect of our lives and the semiconductor market is not immune. At the beginning of the pandemic last year, there was a lot of uncertainty and Qorvo – like most other semiconductor manufacturers – faced tremendous uncertainty as to what the demand curve would look like. We contemplated that demand for our customer’s products would be reduced as people lost employment and began to work from home. In fact, the opposite occurred, and demand for our customers’ products grew, thus our products saw an increase. Working from home drove increased demand globally. To support this increased demand, Qorvo quickly and proactively established very strict processes and protocols to protect our employees and to keep our factories running. Because of this, we were able to optimize our output to take advantage of the increased demand and to grow our business during the pandemic. I think the best way to sum up our manufacturing success is that we were able to bend without breaking.

Qorvo is a direct benefactor of the U.S government’s renewed effort to bring key semiconductor manufacturing capability to the United States. Qorvo was recently awarded the RF SHIP program by the DoD. This is the first step at re-establishing the U.S. as the semiconductor innovation and manufacturing leader. As more and more manufacturing has moved oversees, it has slowly eroded our ability to sustain a domestic supply of critical semiconductors for defense applications. We have become dependent and reliant on other nations to provide us with the products that help protect our nation.

Funding for space, radar, and electronic warfare has been rising the last few years.

Do you see that continuing post-pandemic and under a different administration?

As with any new U.S. administration, you just don’t know what to expect, but these decisions are typically influenced by world events; the fact that competing nations continue to invest heavily in new technologies represents a real potential threat to our national security. In my opinion, for the U.S. to maintain a battle-ready deterrent, the country needs to stay vigilant and continue to invest in new technologies that will provide us with an advantage. Based on this, I see spending for these defense programs www.militaryembedded.com

and others to continue at present levels for the foreseeable future.

When one attends a trade show (pre-pandemic, of course) – such as the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) – one can’t help but notice there is a lot less gray hair at these events than at the large Army and Navy events. Does the military-electronics industry have a recruitment challenge on its hands?

You make an interesting observation.

As in any industry, you expect a certain amount of turnover each year. However, the defense industry is unique in that once you are in, you usually stay to the end of your career. For the past several decades, the defense industry has been able to insulate itself from this high turnover rate by pulling from its deep talent pool. Unfortunately, time does march on and the defense industry is now faced with an older-than-average workforce that presents a new challenge as far as recruiting new talent. I think we have come to an inflection point where it is important for employers to offer prospective employees the flexibility to explore new opportunities within the company and leverage their past learnings to help enhance their new roles.

If possible, companies could enable these employees to cross over between defense and commercial product design.

Looking forward, what disruptive technology or innovation will be a game-changer in the space and military RF/microwave world and and why?

Predict the future.

Simply stated, “continued integration” offers industry the greatest benefit for the future. Meaning that with further integration, we can design smaller systems with greater capability like unmanned vehicle technology and space-based capabilities that we were unable to achieve before.

This would allow us to perform several different missions with a single platform, as opposed to having multiple platforms.

This level of “platform standardization” would offer lasting and meaningful changes in every branch of the defense industry from supply-chain logistics to battlefield readiness and operation. It would also allow the DoD to free up valuable resources to fund research that is vital to national security. MES Qorvo • https://www.qorvo.com/

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SPECIAL REPORT

Leveraging small sats for defense: A matter of commoditization

By Emma Helfrich, Technology Editor Space exploration, observation, and communication systems are entering a renaissance. The advent of launch juggernauts like SpaceX, OneWeb, and even the U.S. Space Force are systematically redefining the way that technology is developed and acquired for use beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Small satellites (small sats) will be among the many platforms that will continue to be affected by recent pushes for modernization.

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Small sats

Defense-industry professionals know it’s an exciting time to be an entrepreneur in space. Past obstacles like launch cost and highly customized design are becoming increasingly less daunting setbacks for makers and users alike, consequently encouraging entrance and proliferation.

Whether the need is to detect hypersonic weapons, enable robust communication, or provide detailed imagery to the armed forces, satellites serve the same purpose that most military technology is designed to achieve: to keep the warfighter safe and informed. What separates small sats from ground-based systems, however, is that the technology needs to operate in challenging space environments.

Entities like the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Space Development Agency (SDA) are looking to small sats to try and redefine the platform, highlighting the benefits of a smaller, more affordable proliferated constellations over their exquisite counterparts. The higher production volume of small sat constellations and the ability to tailor the whole architecture to a specific mission are driving demand, and military suppliers are rising to meet it.

The beauty of small sats is that they aren’t a one-trick pony. The flexibility in these systems’ designs has solidified their place in both space communities and their corresponding markets and has encouraged significant investment and ingenuity amid resolute pushes to lower cost and speed deployment.

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Commodities and venture capital in space With the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) favoring layered sensing infrastructures to provide warfighters with intelligence and surveillance during missions, so-called exquisite constellations of satellites like Space-Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) and Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) (“exquisite” satellites are large, highly sophisticated satellites usually used in geosynchronous orbit for imagery, missile-warning, and intelligence missions) can often accomplish the cost-cutting objective. While small sats alone ameliorate price concerns simply because of their size and life cycle, the commoditization of parts has its part in changing the game as well.

“As we go to more small sats, we’ve been able to use parts that have been commoditized,” says Jackie Schmoll, general manager for mission solutions at L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems (Figure 1). “For example, I know one company uses commoditized car parts in some cases versus aerospace parts.

One of our constellations at L3Harris used computer parts that we added some resiliency to. From a small-sat perspective, they don’t typically have to last for 10 years. They’re usually going to be two- to three-year missions, because the whole concept is that you would be able to launch additional small sats into the constellation on a more recurring basis.”

Commercial investment has been another proponent of getting small sats up into orbit. A small-sat market forecast posted by Space News in February 2020 highlighted how much of the growth within the small-sat market is driven predominantly by commercial companies like SpaceX and OneWeb, which has in turn somewhat liberated militarysatellite suppliers from governmental budget constraints.

“It really goes back to that commoditized cost of the components that they use to build as well as some of the ability that start-up companies, as well as venture capital-backed companies, have brought into the industry,” Schmoll says.

“We sometimes talk internally that some www.militaryembedded.com

Figure 1 | Artist’s rendering of L3Harris small satellites in orbit.

companies have access to dollars that in some cases exceeded what the government was putting into missions. So, that investment has created new creativity and speed.”

But this isn’t to say that small sats haven’t always been a prevalent player in the satellite market – they just weren’t as widely embraced as they are today following the platforms’ increases in mission relevance. This present-day utilization spans industries, and satellite manufacturers are eager to see the widespread small sat recognition.

“Small sats are great for being able to lower the barrier of entry for any organization whether it’s a commercial company, another nation that wasn’t previously a space actor, universities, non-profits – so, all of this is not just for the commercial industry but for the ability to put assets in space that cost has gone down with the proliferation and popularity of small sats,” says JB Young, strategy and business development analyst at Lockheed Martin. “It has also made proliferation attainable, so for commercial entities wanting to provide sat services requiring things like rapid revisit times or continuous coverage, it has made that a more viable business model.”

Commoditization of satellite parts and eager investments in commercial-space actors have provided the acquisition of defense and consumer small sats with quite the running start. However, some missions require more. Bottom line: The robustness of the small sat will depend on mission need.

Investment from primes The continued success of small sats in the commercial world has also motivated defense prime contractors. “As more and more small sats become more and more capable, all of the large primes are playing in that world,” Schmoll says. “Five or 10 years ago, we didn’t really see them investing in small sat capabilities. Since then, Boeing bought Millennium, Northrop Grumman bought Orbital, Lockheed Martin partnered with Tyvak. I think that’s going to continue, where you’ll start to see that the large primes are doing both because both are important. Things are happening that venture-capital and commercially backed industry are allowing all of us to catch up to, versus having to wait only on government funding.”

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June 2021

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SPECIAL REPORT Size no longer determines robustness “If a mission needs high availability, it needs to be highly robust and puts the satellite in more of that exquisite category,” Schmoll says. “Larger and longer-life satellites typically have more redundancy and robustness than that of the small sat because the time, effort, and dollars invested toward building and launching a larger satellite demands making sure that it’s not going to power off because of a solar flare or an anomaly. Although, if a customer needs to put something up there that is agile and needs to get up there quickly, or they’re putting it up as part of a constellation, that might not require as much robustness.”

In short, there’s no comparing system complexity between small sats and larger, longer-life satellites because which one is used depends on the requirements of the operation. It’s a matter of symbiosis in space. Manufacturers are designing small sats with mission resilience in mind as small sats can contribute to mission robustness by augmenting other platform capabilities.

“If you are trying to compare apples to apples and you’re looking at a small sat platform and a larger sat platform, and you’re talking ‘what is the lifetime reliability’ and so on, any spacecraft can be designed for the required level of mission assurance,” Young says. “However, given the limited volume within small sats, you’re going to have issues with redundant systems, or space-qualified electronics, so you might not be able to achieve the same lifetime or reliability, but you can add in or design in mission assurance to any spacecraft size.”

Considering where the bar was set for small-sat robustness in the past, the platforms are far exceeding the expectations of industry professionals today. In areas like remote sensing, both military and commercial satellites didn’t need to achieve much to be considered operationally accomplished.

“Ten years ago, there was a dramatic difference in robustness between the U.S. government and the commercial industry; the mortality rate was high for the burgeoning remote-sensing community, and success criteria required only a few months operation on-orbit,” says Barry Kirkendall, technical director for the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Space Portfolio. “Today, the reliability of small sats has significantly improved with several years of life expectancy being common, even without traditional mission-assurance practices such as multiple redundancies, space-qualified components, and the like.”

Small sats are also currently being developed for multiple orbit altitudes, which require varying radiation-hardening requirements. Depending on mission requirements, overall architecture robustness is closely tied to whether or not the customer needs more or less stringent radiation hardening.

“Radiation-hardening is largely a function of where a spacecraft is designed to operate rather than the size of the spacecraft,” Kirkendall says. “There is a nascent market for small sats to be operated in geosynchronous and cislunar [between the Earth and the moon] orbits, which would require design for higher-radiation environments than similar satellites in low Earth orbit. Interestingly, radiation hardening is much more than radiation-tolerant components; other aspects include resilient system architecture, selective mission redundancies for critical functions, and software voting techniques to identify when a single-event upset has occurred.”

This level of small sat mission robustness, however, doesn’t come without a cost.

While there are customers willing to pay the full price for a highly reliable small-sat architecture, others have a stricter budget. When reliability is paramount but can also drive up the cost, satellite suppliers then must work alongside the customer to find a balance.

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MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Small sats Balancing cost and reliability “Efficiency isn’t always cheap,” Schmoll says. “We’ve had customers where cheap was what they wanted to go for, and the challenge became that they were paying for it in the end because they needed to work around issues that came up after designing something less costly. So, one of the biggest challenges is that there might be parts that are available in different industries at different price points that are a good starting point. In the small-sat area, there has been a lot of research on the different types of parts to see what we could take advantage of.”

Establishing an all-encompassing outlook seems to be the best path for the customer-engineer partnership when designing small sats. Asking up front what specific types of redundancy is needed, the key mission requirements, and how much availability across the system is necessary boosts the chances of reaching an ideal price point without sacrificing the operation.

“Customers often want something that is very reliable but also very low cost,” says Dr. David J. Barnhart, director for technology demonstrations with military space at Lockheed Martin (Figure 2).

“So, we work with the customer to determine what are the most driving requirements of the mission, and we can tailor the capability of the small sat or sats to make sure that their key mission requirements are met.”

After tackling the initial cost, designers must overcome reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP) challenges.

“SWaP optimization is really a tough problem, and if you aren’t careful, you can actually spend a lot of money miniaturizing a payload for the sake of getting it on a small sat,” Barnhart says. “You just have to look at the bigger picture.

There may be a smaller price point of using a slightly bigger payload with a commodity small sat bus to accomplish your mission instead of pouring all of your resources into miniaturizing something. On the other hand, Lockheed has been asked specifically to miniaturize www.militaryembedded.com

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things for missions where smaller spacecraft are absolutely required. We have the critical thinking ability to work across the whole challenge area.”

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Launch and supply-chain complications have also driven SWaP-optimization and costefficiency initiatives for small sats. Industry officials recall that scheduling a slot on a launch manifest used to be a cumbersome, expensive process.

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“Launch costs have significantly come down over the years, and satellite bus production has somewhat commoditized in the sense that there’s more entrants,” Schmoll says. “Proliferated constellations are becoming achievable because they provide both commercial and defense the ability to launch a layered sensing capability or infrastructure at a much lower cost than when exquisite satellites had to be used.”

Recent supply-chain issues have also presented their own set of obstacles when aiming to ensure affordability and reliability in a small sat. Integrating trusted, secure microelectronics is often non-negotiable but can be expensive and difficult to acquire.

“Supply-chain limitations and uncertainty is the primary challenge,” Kirkendall says.

“Critical components, like microelectronics for example, are supply-constrained and can have long lead times. Other examples of supply-chain shortages are electric propulsion propellant valves, plumbing, and regulators. When U.S. suppliers are required for military application, supply-chain issues can be even more of a challenge.”

Despite the impediments, excitement for what’s to come in the small sat industry continues to grow. The MDA, SDA, commercial companies, and the newly emerged U.S. Space Force are expected to work together in developing an overall strategy for how each entity’s respective technologies will play into each other beyond the atmosphere.

The future of small sats Economic viability, as Kirkendall says, is motivating small-sat maturation and advancements. Small-sat suppliers are insisting that the key will be leaning in to the small sat’s trademark diminutive size.

“We started driving smaller and smaller to try and get the launch costs down, and we’ve kind of settled on some standard size platforms,” Young says. “Now, we’re working toward getting more capability and mission-enabling technologies into those form factors with whatever form factor is appropriate for the mission.” MES www.militaryembedded.com

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SPECIAL REPORT

Small sats

SDRs for satellites

Satellite parts diagram. Source: Space Foundation.

By Victor Wollesen and Etiido Uko

Radio technology is and will continue to be an indispensable part of communication systems, particularly those used by the military. Softwaredefined radios (SDRs) have significantly reduced the cost of satellite systems while exponentially increasing their functionality, efficiency, and durability.

A satellite is broadly defined as an object/ mass that orbits around a planetary body.

This definition includes both natural satellites such as the moon and artificial satellites that are launched into space from the earth.

In this article and most modern contexts, satellites refer to human-made machines that orbit the earth. Satellite systems are fully integrated communication systems that can receive and transmit signals to and from the ground and other satellites.

A satellite system consists of various systems working together to keep the satellite functioning such as the propulsion system, the power system, and data collection systems.

16 June 2021

While these systems are indispensable to the satellite, their main purpose is to support the satellite to carry out its primary function of transmitting and receiving data-carrying signals.

Thar function is performed by the onboard communication system, using radio technology. A satellite’s communication system is basically a radio system that includes antennas, transceivers/transponders, and, in some cases, processors. Satellites are used in numerous civil, defense, and commercial applications across various industries. These applications can be broadly classified into broadcasting, telecommunications, data transfer, data collection/scientific research, and GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems).

In GNSS, satellites are used to provide accurate geolocation of ground receivers.

The ground receives signals transmitted from a constellation of GNSS satellites and uses the data to calculate its position. GNSS requires satellites to communicate not only with ground receivers but also with other satellites.

Leveraging SDR in satellite communications For years these systems depended on traditional hardware radios that have become obsolete and inadequate for use in satellite systems and are no longer capable of meeting the very high requirements of modern-day satellites. These radios have been replaced by software-defined radios (SDRs).

SDRs are equipment in which certain functions such as modulation/demodulation and signal processing, typically performed by hardware, are performed by software instead. SDRs are capable of transmitting, receiving, and processing signals with very high functionality.

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Early satellites were quite rigid when it came to operating frequencies. A single satellite often contained one transceiver/transponder, capable of transmitting at one frequency. Today, the wideband operation, flexibility, and reconfigurability of SDRs enable satellites to switch between operating frequencies. SDRs have advanced to the point of having multiple radio chains (as many as 16) that can simultaneously be operated at different frequencies. The upshot: With a capable SDR, a single satellite can be used for as many as 16 different applications in different bands at the same time.

SDR applications This capability has been critical in applications such as emergency situations when ground systems are down and in areas where there is no ground infrastructure. Likewise, in the military, where secure and reliable communication is needed at all times and in all places.

Another application leveraging SDR is data communication, which involves the transfer of data from point to point, is often carried out using satellites via VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) networks. In VSAT networks, a ground station computer acts as a hub for the network. A user sends data through their transceiver and via the hub to a satellite which receives and transmits the data to another user in the network. VSAT networks can handle voice, video, and data signals. (Figure 1.)

SDR also enables satellite internet, which is a fast-rising application of satellite systems and is a much larger scale of data communication, involving the transfer of enormous amounts of data. In data collection applications, the satellites have data-capture devices that capture video, audio, and image data. The data/ payload is processed and transmitted as signals to a ground station. Data collection satellites are used in many scientific fields and also in military applications to provide reconnaissance data.

In every one of these applications, the onboard radio of the satellites performs the primary function. The radios transmit www.militaryembedded.com

Figure 1 | U.S. Army soldiers are trained on how to set up and use the Combat Service Support Very Small Aperture Terminal (CSS VSAT) Inflatable Satellite Antenna (ISA). U.S. Department of Defense photo.

and receive between satellites and ground station/end users, provide a means of communication among different satellites, serve to transmit collected data to ground stations, and link the satellites to control stations on different wavelengths simultaneously. (Figure 2.) It is imperative that a satellite be able to operate at different frequencies, which is where SDR technology comes in.

Figure 2 | The European Data Relay System (EDRS) – a public-private partnership between ESA and Airbus Defence and Space – enables information gathered by low-orbiting satellites and unmanned aircraft to be sent anywhere on Earth in quasi-real time by passing the information between the geostationary nodes via laser and downlinking to the ground. European Space Agency diagram.

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June 2021

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SPECIAL REPORT

Small sats

Furthermore, satellite communications use 1 to 50 GHz for transmission – the L, S, C, X, Ka, Ku, and V bands – with different satellite applications using different bands.

Similarly, the various frequencies within a band are dedicated to specific applications.

In certain satellite applications, relatively low amounts of data are being transferred, while others involve the transfer of large amounts of data. For example, broadcasting applications involve large amounts of audiovisual data; similarly, in data collection, large, high-quality resolution images and videos are transmitted to the earth. Even more data-intensive is satellite internet, which takes things to a much larger scale: While the technology is still in the development stage, there is the potential for the transfer of quintillions of bytes of data daily. SDR solutions will be critical for capitalizing on the potential of satellite internet.

SDRs are capable of having very high bandwidths of up to 1 GHz per radio chain.

Some SDRs also have onboard FPGAs [field-programmable gate arrays] and DSPs [digital signal processors] for rapid and power-efficient processing; both of these enable SDRs to quickly transfer huge amounts of data handled by satellites without significant latency. The FPGA also makes the SDRs reconfigurable, enabling the satellite system to be easily repurposed, reconfigured, and updated.

As mentioned earlier, multichain SDRs enable one satellite to be used for various applications. The Cyan Pro SDR platform offers 16 independent radio chains and can be used for numerous applications simultaneously. (Figure 3.)

SDRs bring reduced size and weight benefits Satellites that use SDR solutions also see size and weight benefits. Launching a satellite into space is an extremely expensive venture. Weight is usually the most significant

Technological advancements and competition among space companies have significantly reduced the cost per kilogram of launching a satellite.

However, at a minimum cost as high as $2,000/kg, it is still considered expensive. factor, which is why satellites are required to be as light as possible. Note that a single launch can carry multiple satellites, reducing cost. Technological advancements and competition among space companies have significantly reduced the cost per kilogram (kg) of launching a satellite. However, at a minimum cost as high as $2,000/kg, it is still considered expensive.

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Victor Wollesen is the CEO and cofounder of Toronto-based software-defi ned radio company Per Vices Corporation.

Victor has an honour’s degree in physics with a specialization in astrophysics from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.

He has coauthored several peerreviewed papers on SDR technology.

Victor is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Figure 3 | The software-defined radio (SDR) from Per Vices enables users to transmit, receive, and process all signals on a single modular, fully integrated platform. The configurable architecture can work across different satellite constellations and protocols without requiring any hardware changes.

SDRs are very compact systems that eliminate the need for bulky hardware equipment. Their architecture makes them perfect for satellite systems as they are light and extraordinarily small, considering their capabilities. With SDRs, compact but highly functional satellite systems can be launched into space at much lower cost. Moreover, because SDRs contain very minimal hardware and almost no moving parts, they are optimized for use in satellite systems. MES

Etiido Maurice Uko is a mechanical engineer with experience in numerous engineering fi elds. He is also a design engineer and a technical writer.

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June 2021

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MIL TECH TRENDS

DoD must innovate in AI by 2025 Sally Cole, Senior Editor Developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology for the battlefield is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) as its adversaries continue to scale up their own AI and machine learning capabilities. Much of the DoD’s AI wizardry is spun out of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which looks to enable machines to become trusted, collaborative partners of not just warfighters but all humans.

Much like they have driven the increased emphasis on cybersecurity, trusted computing, and microelectronics, the U.S. government and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) are making dominance in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology essential across all domains.

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Enabling artificial int llig nc in

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The pressure is on: Earlier in 2021, the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI) submitted its Final Report to Congress and the President, outlining a need for the DoD to be AI-ready by 2025. The NSCAI report defines “AI-ready” as “Warfighters enabled with baseline digital literacy and access to the digital infrastructure and software required for ubiquitous AI integration in training, exercises, and operations.” [Note: this report can be found at https://reports.nscai.gov/final-report/tableof-contents/] “Even with the right AI-ready technology foundations in place, the U.S. military will still be at a battlefield disadvantage if it fails to adopt the right concepts and operations to integrate AI technologies,” the report continues. “Throughout history, the best adopters and integrators, rather than the best technologists, have reaped the military rewards of new technology. The DoD should not be a witness to the AI revolution in military affairs, but should deliver it with leadership from the top, new operating concepts, relentless experimentation, and a system that rewards agility and risk.”

It’s important to realize “you can’t just flip a switch and have these capabilities in place,” according to NSCAI Commissioners Andy Jassy and Ken Ford.

“It takes steady, committed work over a long period of time to bring these capabilities to fruition.”

The report says “the DoD must act now to integrate AI into critical functions, existing systems, exercises, and wargames to become an AI-ready force by 2025.” To get there, the report recommends the U.S. government responsibly

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develop and use AI technologies, with an emphasis on implications and applications of AI for defense and national security.

Hardware will play a key role. The report notes that due to China’s conflict with Taiwan, the U.S. is dangerously close to losing access to the vast majority of cutting-edge microelectronics (fabricated in Taiwan) that power U.S. companies and military. It recommends revitalizing our domestic semiconductor design and manufacturing to ensure that the U.S. is two generations ahead of its adversaries. (See more on this in our Editor’s Perspective on page 5.)

AI is already providing value to humans for tasks in which decisions about how to execute a task are either governed by a limited set of well-understood rules or can be based on statistical pattern recognition, she says; this value will continue to increase.

“But AI that can be trusted to augment and support humans in a broader range of real-world, time-critical tasks within dynamic and unknown environments – as is often the case for military applications – remains an aspirational goal for DARPA,” Browning notes. “As far as we’ve come, we have that much further and more to go to achieve the original DARPA AI vision of truly symbiotic, trusted collaborative partnerships between humans and machines.”

Enabling AI within military systems There are challenges involved with using AI within the military and its systems, with the biggest one that “the military operational environment can be very dynamic and is often unknown,” says Browning. “This creates challenges in acquiring and making available the copious amount of data needed to train today’s state-of-the-art AI systems.”

The report also stresses the importance of innovation: “The U.S. needs to sustain and increase investment in AI research to set conditions for accessible domestic AI innovation and drive the breakthroughs to win the technology competition through establishing a national AI research infrastructure and doubling Federal investments in AI R&D to reach $32B by 2026.”

AI R&D starts with DARPA Military AI research actually began literal decades ago. A few examples: In the 1960s, the DoD began training computers to mimic basic human reasoning.

By the 1990s, work on machine learning (ML) advanced from knowledge-driven to data-driven approaches, and computer programs were created to analyze vast amounts of data and “learn” from the results. Deep learning, which uses algorithms to let computers recognize objects and text within images and videos, advanced in the 2000s and 2010s. Computer vision, a combination of ML and neural networks, now can autonomously find objects of interest within video and imagery from drones within war zones. [Note: For more on AI/ML history, read https://militaryembedded.com/ai/machine-learning/ artificial-intelligence-timeline] “Our vision for AI today is the same as it was at the very beginning: to enable machines as trusted, collaborative partners to help humans solve important national-security problems,” says Valerie Browning, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office. www.militaryembedded.com

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June 2021

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MIL TECH TRENDS

Enabling artificial intelligence in military systems

Even when it is possible to train an AI system to perform a particular task, “adapting it to a new task or environment is typically not possible without significant retraining that may or may not preserve the competency of the system for prior learned tasks,” she adds.

Current AI systems “work well in applications where the consequences of ‘getting it wrong’ are tolerable and noncatastrophic,” Browning points out. “The increasing complexity and speed of military operations places a high bar for AI systems that support ‘faster-than-thought’ decision-making in situations where human lives are at risk. And realistic test and evaluation of AI systems in terms of how they will perform in these types of applications is extremely difficult.”

Military use of AI AI is currently being used for military applications such as language translation, image classification, medical diagnosis, cyber defense, and automation of critical business processes including software accreditation and security clearance vetting.

“DARPA’s Explainable AI (XAI) program has made significant advancements toward AI algorithms that are more transparent and understandable to a broad range of users,” says Matt Turek, a program manager in DARPA’s Information Innovation Office. “We’ve created new XAI techniques that allow AI developers to better introspect and understand machine-learning models during the development process.”

“We have a clear understanding of the limitations of current state-of-the-art AI based on machine learning, so we can reasonably predict the type of applications that can benefit from near-term AI. In the longer term, as the original DARPA vision of truly trusted and collaborative human-machine partnerships come to fruition, we can expect to see AI increasingly deployed to support time-critical decision-making within tactical environments,” Browning says.

XAI has also built new approaches for explaining decisions to operational users, Turek adds, like highlighting the region of an image that most influenced a decision. “We’ve developed processes for explaining AI systems to commanders, such as a new after-action review process for AI that uncovers key decision points for an autonomous system after a mission,” he adds.

Explainable AI One challenge to adopting AI for military applications is that users want to understand how it reaches a conclusion.

Real-time conversational AI for robots Speaking is the most natural way for people to interact with complex autono-

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mous agents or robots. Knowing this, researchers from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM), Army Research Laboratory and the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies devised a way to flexibly interpret and respond to soldier intent derived from spoken dialogue with autonomous systems.

The lab’s joint Understanding and Dialogue Interface (jUDI) system relies on a statistical classification technique to enable conversational AI via state-ofthe-art natural-language understanding and dialogue-management technologies.

“The statistical language classifier enables autonomous systems to interpret the intent of a soldier by recognizing the purpose of the communication and performing actions to realize the underlying intent,” explains Army researcher Felix Gervits. “For example, if a robot receives a command to turn 45 degrees and send a picture, it could interpret the instruction and carry out the task.”

The classifier is trained on a labeled data set of human-robot dialogue generated during a collaborative search-and-rescue task. It learned “a mapping” of verbal commands to responses and actions – allowing it to apply this knowledge to new commands and to respond in an appropriate manner. (Figure 1.)

The researchers say that the technique can be applied to combat vehicles and autonomous systems to enable advanced real-time conversational capability for soldier-agent teaming. “By creating a natural speech interface to these complex autonomous systems, researchers can support hands-free operation to improve situational awareness and give our soldiers the decisive edge,” Gervits says.

Interacting with conversational agents requires little to no training for soldiers.

“There is no requirement to change what they would say,” he adds. “A key benefit is the system also excels at handling noisy speech, which includes pauses, fillers, and disfluencies – all features one would expect in a normal conversation with humans.” www.militaryembedded.com

Figure 1 | Army researchers create a novel approach to allow autonomous systems to interpret and respond to soldiers. Image courtesy U.S. Army/1st Lt. Angelo Mejia.

The classifier is trained ahead of time, so it can operate in real time without processing delays in conversation. This technique supports increased naturalness and flexibility in soldier-agent dialogue and can improve the effectiveness of these kinds of mixedagent teams, Gervits says.

AI-enabled malign information campaigns an emerging, morphing challenge A different form of AI weaponry is emerging in the form of the insidious spread of disinformation campaigns on social media, which can be shockingly effective on a targeted and massive scale.

The NSCAI report warns: “The prospect of adversaries using machine learning, planning, and optimization to create systems to manipulate citizens’ beliefs and behavior in undetectable ways is a gathering storm. Most concerning is the prospect that adversaries will use AI to create weapons of mass influence to use as leverage during future wars, in which every citizen and organization becomes a potential target.”

One of the report’s recommendations is to fund DARPA to coordinate multiple research programs to detect, attribute, and disrupt AI-enabled malign information campaigns and to authenticate the provenance of digital media. This approach would “amplify ongoing DARPA research programs to detect synthetic media and expand its efforts into attributing and disrupting malign information campaigns,” the report states.

DARPA is exploring how to combat these threats through its “Media Forensics (MediFor) program-developed tools that automatically produce a quantitative integrity score indicating if an image or video was manipulated or AI-generated,” Turek says. “MediFor technology is foundational for detecting deep fakes and other forms of AI-manipulated media.”

For its part, DARPA’s Semantic Forensics (SemaFor) program is building tools to detect, attribute, and characterize falsified text, images, audio, and video. DARPA’s Influence Campaign Awareness and Sensemaking (INCAS) will develop techniques to help analysts detect, characterize, and track geopolitical influence campaigns with quantified confidence. The SemaFor program launches later in 2021. MES

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The future of human-AI systems is already here – it’s just not evenly architected

By Clodéric Mars “Network-centric warfare,” “network of networks,” “system of systems,” “combat cloud,” “kill web”: This idea of an interconnected ecosystem seems as ubiquitous as it is challenging to implement, deploy, and leverage harmoniously at strategic levels in the military. With recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) to factor in, the advent of what is now commonly referred to as the kill web relies on solving the challenges that come with the design of an architecture that allows human users and AI to safely coexist in that system of systems. Such an architecture needs to be evolutive and support iterative improvements, plus it must be technologically and structurally adaptive, scalable, modular, and, of course, secure -- all while placing human decision at its core.

The operational structure, strategies, technologies, and ethical concerns of the future remain unknowable, but they will undoubtedly need to include both human users and artificial intelligence (AI) agents, and both need to be trained.

Introducing a modular and flexible architectural layer that remains consistent – from military simulation and training requirements to real-life operational needs – decisively answers these challenges and expands the capabilities of AI agents towards more strategic support. We now have the means to build such a layer in a tech-agnostic, distributed, and efficiently orchestrated way – allowing AIs and human users to collaborate more efficiently, reliably, and safely.

Laying the groundwork Regardless of the kinds of technologies used in AI development, some basic high-level principles always apply. Much like people, AI agents need to accumulate experience and become able to estimate and reason about outcomes to achieve any sort of solid capabilities.

Some AIs are better suited to certain tasks than others.

The breadth of modern AI is staggering: From statistical analysis and classical supervised or unsupervised learning to more modern techniques such as reinforcement learning (RL) or imitation learning (IL), all the way up to more experimental ones like genetic algorithms – and even nonlearning approaches like planning

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(e.g., STRIPS, GOAP) or search (e.g., case-based reasoning, Monte Carlo tree search) plus any other existing or upcoming AI technologies. Such an architecture must be able to accommodate all of these, and even hybridize them, to leverage current stateof-the-art and future advances in AI. Most importantly, when working in collaboration, whether with humans or other AI agents, the ability to communicate – that is, exchange and receive key data – is paramount. Orchestrating data generation, acquisition, and communication is therefore at the heart of the required architecture.

Needed: A system of systems to accommodate different aspects of warfare, as well as all sorts of human and artificial actors working together, that will request, filter, and direct data coming from heterogeneous actors and systems built to different specifications. That challenge can be solved by using common underlying data structure definitions, defined using object models (OM) or interface description languages (IDL) such as HLA’s Federated Object Model (FOM) or protocol buffers. To establish and possibly “translate” what AI or human actors need to train and operate can absolutely be built – both the architecture and its orchestrator – with interoperability and tech stack agnosticism in mind. The internet is a proven example of how, with the right underlying protocols and architectural foundations, such networks can be future-resilient and adaptable. The internet enables communication between vastly different types of software, hardware, operating systems, and the like, spanning decades. However, this example only stresses how polished those foundations need to be. To eventually achieve these polished and long-sustainable foundations, two other key aspects of such an architecture must be enforced both from technological and work approach standpoints.

Modularity and iterative implementation Aside from the orchestrator, the elements of a modern architecture designed to enable human users and AI agents to collaborate will need to be implemented through both a modular design, and an iterative process. This structure will ensure the architecture can operate in a distributed, scalable, and evolutive way, but also course-correct easily and reach that seamless internet-style interoperability. Formalizing its components as microservices using sturdy and efficient communication through structured network communications protocols in the application layer, such as gRPC, supports this modularity, as well as a distributed deployment model paramount to its use in different contexts, in a scalable way.

Markov Decision Processes – a mathematical framework for modeling decisionmaking in situations where outcomes are partly random and partly under the control

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of a decision maker – provide a proven framework to model how AI and humans operating in shared environments could interact using a definition of what they can perceive (their observation spaces) and what they can do (their action spaces). Environments change from specific states to others; observations of those states call for actions that change those environments, trigger new observations, and so on.

Naturally, as they learn to operate together, humans and AI agents interact with these environments and each other.

Initially, they should first have the opportunity to do so in a consequence-free setting: i.e., military simulations, training exercises, and the like. Modularity and iterative implementation enable continuous evaluation and progress of the architecture components in terms of scope and sturdiness, but one critical aspect that is too often overlooked in modern AI-based systems is the transition between training, consequencefree settings, and real-life ones. Building high-fidelity simulation environments is but one element that helps AI agents and human users alike to train in a way that will facilitate a smooth transition to real operational contexts.

However, from the point of view of the architecture itself, smoothing out that transition not only requires little to no difference between a simulated environment and a real one, but also in the way all the elements work together. The ability to go back and forth between constructive, virtual, or live simulations and real operational settings as smoothly as possible is yet another critical facet of what we mean by modularity and iterative implementation. Inputs and outputs should remain the same from sim to real.

As new modules are developed and others improved or deployed for real-life operation, the ability for AI agents and human users to operate seamlessly from simulation and training to real-life and operations, with as short iterative cycles as possible, will be paramount for such an architecture to provide the flexibility, safety, and efficiency required.

Standards like High-Level Architecture (HLA) – developed to provide a common architecture for distributed modeling and simulation – can help, but these www.militaryembedded.com

Figure 1 | Example of a modular architecture where simulated and real environments as well as actors, AI and humans alike, interoperate through a centralized orchestrator. In this example, the federated ecosystem is instantiated for three typical use cases, from preparation to training to operations.

primarily provide a way for simulations to interoperate. An extra layer of formalism to optimize the learning process of artificial agents in those systems is still necessary.

When considering AI-powered collaborative agents learning from human actions and decisions, this factor also means that human users should be involved as soon as possible in the process; not only for the sake of the AI agents’ performance, but also for human users to train alongside them and familiarize themselves as soon as possible with what those new AI agents can or cannot do for them, and with them.

Human-centric design It is essential to keep in mind that AI agents are no magic bullets. As extraordinary as these newer technological allies can be, automation should not be the end goal of their use, but rather the means for humans to better focus on what they do best and support them in what they can’t do as well. The amount of data and dynamics of a modern kill web is staggering, and AI can help sort through it like no other tool can.

But humans remain at the center of the decision-making process, and therefore at the center of these systems.

A tool that keeps the human-centric view in mind is Cogment, an AI-human framework built around those key pillars of tech-agnosticism, multiagent and multimethod capabilities, modularity, flexibility, scalability, and adaptability. (Figure 1.)

Such a platform factors in a future in which AIs and humans are intricately intertwined in increasingly complex and expansive ecosystems, while accommodating the rapid progress of the AI state of the art. Rebalancing focus towards the human element is even more crucial in the context of military applications. MES Clodéric Mars has been building and deploying AI technology since 2006, closing the technology divide between machine learning and simulation while applying deep tech methodologies to solve complex engineering challenges and functionalize advanced AI for commercial usage. From his start as a developer to becoming a CTO, he has been primarily focused on AI and ML algorithms, applied data science, distributed cloud architecture, API design, product management, and team building. He is a recognized public speaker and organizer at AI industry events.

AI Redefined • https://ai-r.com/

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Enabling AI at the tactical edge

By David Huisenga and Wade Johnston

Artificial intelligence (AI) qualifies as a once-in-a-generation technology because it transforms so many aspects of warfighting, from speeding analysis of data from the Internet of battlefield things (IoBT) for more informed decisionmaking, to transforming weapons systems, soldier training, health monitoring, robotics, and unmanned systems. However, identifying battlefield AI use cases is far easier than developing the embedded hardware and software required to enable AI at the tactical edge. Gaining a better understanding of these challenges – and how to address them – can deliver asymmetric advantages to U.S. military commanders on the modern battlefield.

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At a Joint Artificial Intelligence Center symposium in 2020, former Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper affirmed the stakes for those who fall behind developing AI. “History informs us that those who are first to harness once-in-ageneration technologies often have a decisive advantage on the battlefield for years to come.”

Historical compute limitations stifle tactical AI Warfighters need access to as much actionable intelligence as possible at the edge to outmaneuver adversaries. There is a difference between access to data – which is certainly not in short supply – and access to data that can be rapidly processed and analyzed to inform real-time decision-making by commanders and warfighters.

Battlefield decision-making has historically been slowed by the limitations of tactical hardware and software compute and processing, which in turn requires information captured at the edge to cycle back to command data centers.

Key hardware and software challenges include: › Power: Power available in tactical vehicles and for warfighters on the move is limited. Adding more compute power required for AI-enabled applications without adding more hardware and addressing size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements is complicated. Most tactical vehicles provide 22-32 VDC power, generally referred to as 24 VDC. › Environment: Enabling AI at the tactical edge requires that hardware and software operate in extreme environments. Developers cannot build products that operate reliably only in sealed, temperaturecontrolled environments. Products used at the tactical edge must work in

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Design to use Embedded graphics-processing units (GPUs) are key for military systems with heavy processing demands, such as those required for AI. The GPU, or chassis it is in, must be able to take wide-ranging AC/DC power. The GPU should be able to be easily swapped out as that technology changes very rapidly and the minimum specifications continue to increase. Detailed specifications are difficult to pinpoint because they vary widely depending on the application.

To improve instances of soldier decision-making, Special Operations Command (SOCOM) issued a solicitation during 2020 affirming its focus on maximizing AI that can run at the tactical edge for rapid synthesizing of data collected in these disconnected environments. This focus in effect automates analytics at the tactical edge and reduces dependence on analysts “outside the tactical bubble.”

More processing power for its own sake is not the best use of development resources.

Solutions should be built for specific military use cases and scenarios. Vendors must identify the AI capabilities the soldiers require computing power for, identify applications that can be run in vehicles, and then optimize hardware and software packages for SWaP and align with those user requirements. extreme environments, whether it’s temperature or humidity extremes. Moreover, devices used by warfighters tapping into AI applications must be ruggedized to withstand unpredictable soldier on-the-move requirements to include shock and vibration. › Size: Efforts are underway between the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and industry to improve the compute power necessary to support AI without expanding the hardware footprint for in-vehicle and soldier wearables. AI-enabled soldier wearables are still not ready for day-to-day usage; the difficulty of packing meaningful compute power into portable, small-form-factor devices is one of the major reasons.

Software presents a challenge as well.

Software at the tactical edge must be able to operate when disconnected and must seamlessly sync to the cloudhosted application when a viable connection is made between the edge and command environments. www.militaryembedded.com

Ideally, tactical GPU capable of taking advantage of AI/ML [machine learning] advances for edge environments follows a “design to use” approach. For instance, Army compute needs could be for soldiers on-the-move or ground combat vehicles; in contrast, for the U.S. Air Force, the use case could be something needed for a forward air base.

Each service has different product-scale and size requirements engineers must take into account when developing solutions to increase processing power.

Enabling more compute power in limited footprint Military vehicle modernization is a challenge in terms of adding new equipment to power AI-enabled applications. AI and ML require a graphics-processing unit (GPU) that’s powerful enough to analyze moving images in real time, but GPUs with that kind of power simply haven’t been able to operate at the tactical edge due to power and space limitations. A primary reason for this is that the “radio” shelf space in ground combat vehicles is a finite space.

Hardware/software packages can be swapped in and out, but one cannot add power inverters and converters, uninterruptible power supplies, and modules to increase compute power without lengthy and costly vehicle modifications. This means invehicle tactical communications space must be transformed to enable applications like AI without requiring changes to the shelf space itself.

Open, modular, and scalable “SAVE” the day The military’s Standardized A-kit/Vehicle Envelope (SAVE) specifications seek to address the military vehicle power and space challenge by providing guidance to industry partners on standards for the radio-shelf footprint. SAVE communicates to vendors designing platforms for these vehicles to the requirements regarding physical product attributes (width, height, depth, margins for vibration, and cable routes), connections (number of cables provided and types of connectors) and environment (vibration, temperature, and radiation).

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Enabling artificial intelligence in military systems

Embedded solutions that meet SAVE standards deliver an open, modular, and scalable range of network, compute, and radio systems modules designed with a common form factor which allows users to repurpose existing equipment and the ability to easily add new capabilities as the mission dictates.

Additionally, these solutions should deliver the following capabilities: › Power and chassis platforms with GPU, CPU, router, and switching capabilities that allow for tactical edge vehicle applications such as AI/ML while still meeting SAVE standards › Hardware and software components with a standardized “envelope” that enables rapid swapping out of compute and processing capability to add new technology without vehicle modifications

No man is an island, but battlefields are Commanders today – particularly those at the farthest edges of the battlefield – often operate in “disconnected data” battlefields that fall victim to a laborious flow of information between operational commanders and upper echelons. Data must first be sent back to headquarters for parsing, aggregating, and analyzing, then routed back to operational commanders in time to neutralize threats or gain the upper hand against adversaries.

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› Modules built to plug in and out of standardized chassis to keep pace with technology development › AI/ML capabilities with a hardware set that can run along with radio integration › Radio brackets that enable easy integration of traditional radio network data into route/switch/ compute networks › Universal power connection: Power connectors shall be M55181/2-01 (input), M55181/4-01 (output), per current MIL-STD-1275, the same as SINCGARS [singlechannel ground and airborne radio system] › Dimensions must be no larger than 15.9 inches wide by 16.1 inches deep by 9.3 inches high

At-the-halt operations have more flexibility via higher throughput bandwidth to connect back to higher-powered infrastructure (data centers, etc.). For on-themove military operations, it is far more challenging to connect to more established infrastructure. How does all of this impact AI? AI can automate the parsing/aggregating/ analysis of data at the tactical edge, but to do so successfully requires edge computing platforms capable of running AI. Extending tactical cloud to the edge To improve instances of soldier decisionmaking, Special Operations Command (SOCOM) issued a solicitation during 2020 affirming its focus on maximizing AI that can run at the tactical edge for rapid synthesizing of data collected in these disconnected environments. This www.militaryembedded.com

David Huisenga has served as president and CEO of Klas Government since 2013. Prior to his executive management roles, Mr. Huisenga spent over 20 years designing, integrating, and maintaining specialized data, voice, and video communications systems. Mr. Huisenga is currently serving on the board of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Washington D.C. Chapter where he served as chapter president in 2019.

Figure 1 | The Voyager Tactical Cloud Platform (TCP) fits in a Voyager 6 power chassis – which is SAVE SAVE-compliant – and in turn fits in any U.S. military vehicle.

Wade Johnston (U.S. Army Colonel, Retired) is director of Innovation at Klas Government. He previously served as CIO at Army Futures Command; his military experience also included assignments with the 18th Field Artillery Brigade in North Carolina, the 304th Signal Battalion in South Korea, and special operations forces.

Klas • https://www.klasgroup.com/

focus in effect automates analytics at the tactical edge and reduces dependence on analysts “outside the tactical bubble.”

Making AI at the edge a reality means making the cloud at the edge a reality, and those efforts are underway. A properly designed and built tactical cloud package will fit in any U.S./NATO military vehicle and enable deployment of database applications to leverage the power of AI and ML at the tactical edge.

Looking ahead, SAVE paved the way for open standards: As the U.S. Army makes progress on making C4ISR [Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance]/Electronic Warfare Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) available, it will also be designed to the SAVE standard. CMOSS is a modular open systems architecture (MOSA) that converges select Army warfighting capabilities – such as mission command, movement and maneuver, and fires – into one system, versus the current method of integrating a multitude of separate capability “boxes” into vehicles.

In tandem with CMOSS designers to fit the open systems architecture into the SAVE envelope, the power of the cloud can enable AI, analytics, and other applications in the field with the Klas Voyager Tactical Cloud Platform (TCP).

(Figure 1.) The TCP fits in a Voyager 6 power chassis, which is SAVE-compliant, and in turn fits in any U.S. military vehicle. TCP can be mounted and used while in motion, without need for retrofitting vehicles and equipment. MES www.militaryembedded.com

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Rad-hard microelectronics demand on the rise in military, commercial markets

By John McHale, Editorial Director

Radiation-hardened microelectronics are in demand, from commercial small sats to NASA manned space missions to military satellite missions in contested space. Designing components for these various applications is a matter of balancing reliability and cost as demand for more commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components increases.

The space market from a microelectronics perspective is looking quite robust. Many sectors are booming, from commercial mega constellations of small satellites to NASA deep space and planetary missions to contested space and funding for U.S. Space Force and military classified programs.

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Rad-hard electronics design trends

Rad-hard microelectronics are in demand from U.S. Space Force applications like the AEHF-6, a sophisticated communications relay satellite, and the first DoD payload launched for the U.S. Space Force, pictured here launching on an Atlas V AEHF-6 rocket. U.S. Air Force photo by Derwin Oviedo.

Part of that robustness – even during a global pandemic – results from continued funding for military space programs from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), a trend that continues. Unlike in other markets, military space companies were able to navigate the pandemic with DoD current and long-term funding intact.

An example of the military’s commitment to the space market is the U.S. Air Force’s recent FY 2022 budget request for $885 million for commercial microelectronics, says Larry Hayden, senior director, sales and business development, Vorago Technologies. “We also see the strength indicated by the increased number of design requests and component orders from military customers.”

DoD space budget requests “can be hard to compile as funding is spread across multiple programs and services and each have their own pockets,” says Dave Young, CTO for Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES). “However, when you aggregate this spending it represents significant growth for rad-hard microelectronic suppliers.”

It helps to be essential: “The deemed ‘critical’ business rating of this industry helped it weather the pandemic storm,” says Josh Broline, director of marketing and applications, Industrial and Communications Business Division at Renesas.

“There have been extended lead times here and there, but it’s been fairly stable.

Also, the customer base, since they were still really engaged throughout the pandemic, did their best to maintain procurement as needed, so the demand profile has been relatively stable, even though it’s growing. They also focused on getting POs [purchase orders] submitted in a timely manner, bought what they needed, and planned long-lead item buys to the best of their ability.”

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Nothing motivates military planners and military spending like adversarial threats, and space is filled with contestants looking to dominate this domain.

“Contested space continues to be critical area of investment for the DoD as the adversarial threat has grown more complex in that domain,” Young says. “That threat is also a reason the U.S. Space Force was stood up. Adversaries shooting down our satellites could be a very destabilizing event. But, the use of electro-magnetic spectrum (EMS) weapons – directed energy in form of microwaves – against U.S. satellites to deny their warfighting capability is the more likely scenario. Ensuring that our electronics are reliable during such an event could be a key future requirement of the U.S. military.”

Figure 1 | 3-D Plus’ DDR4 SDRAM works with space-qualified high-end FPGAs: KU060, RT Polarfire, NG Ultra.

Microelectronics technology is a top priority for the DoD in terms of current procurement and future research and development. So much so that the U.S. government is investing in returning semiconductor manufacturing to U.S. shores to ensure a more trusted supply chain for strategic rad-hard electronics. For more on this, read the Editor’s Perspective on page 5.

Commercial pressures While certainly motivated by external threats. DoD planners are also mindful of costs.

Commercial small-sat applications and their low development costs have program managers pressuring rad-hard designers to deliver lower cost components while maintaining reliability and increasing performance.

When constellation providers cut prices “so drastically it becomes very difficult to provide reliable radiation protection,” says Timothée Dargnies, CEO of 3D Plus USA. “But this only makes sense for us when the volumes are high enough to justify adjusting the radiation and reliability performance to meet these cost requirements.

Small sats are very interesting from a business case – but only when the volume comes with it.” 3D Plus offers rad hard DDR4 SRAM products. (Figure 1.)

Often it comes down to mission requirements as to what affordability means – whether it’s a commercial or military satellite. “I look at space and satellite applications as data collection – all kinds of data,” says Marti McCurdy, owner and CEO of Spirit Electronics. “The complexity and breadth of what components they launch depends on the cost of a particular satellite and how much the satellite company wants to spend. New space and constellation providers want cheaper components, faster time to market, even trading on reliability to meet that price point.”

Defense primes face similar cost challenges despite the essentialness of military mission requirements. “The Tier 1 primes are all interested in affordability and how to get more commercial technology into space vehicles, while at the same time maintaining reliability and radiation resistance,” Young says. They essentially want “commercial products with high-run rates packaged to survive in space,” he adds.

Those demands for low-cost components in extreme environments might be starting to get tempered as more data comes back on their performance in constellations.

“Many [mega-constellations] are already operational with their full quota of satellites just about launched,” says Anton Quiroz, CEO of Apogee Semiconductor. “So, they are starting to get really good data, from a reliability perspective, such as failure rates, etc. As they move to improve their hardware based on that data they are starting to see that they need radiation-hardened components than they originally thought. Some constellations are seeing a 1% failure rate, and some of that has to be SEU- [single-event upset] attributable.”

Striking the balance For rad-hard microelectronics designers finding that equilibrium between reliability and affordability can be challenging as requirements differ from platform to platform so there is rarely a one-size-fits-all approach. www.militaryembedded.com

Figure 2 | Pictured is VORAGO Technologies’ radiation-hardened VA416X0 PQFP Arm Cortex-M4 with FPU MCU, hardened with HARDSIL technology.

“Typically, we find that the customer determines the pedigree to start with; standard COTS or space parts depending on the application specific use of the device to perform additional reliability and radiation testing to their own specs and possibly extend a few parameters during for their own application,” McCurdy says. “This is in addition to testing that the manufacturer performs.

The end applications for these parts typically are mission-critical, such as deep space or manned missions, so they want full coverage on the electrical test.”

Companies are also combining rad-hard processes and commercial manufacturing techniques to meet reduced cost requirements. “Our rad-hard microcontrollers target [commercial] applications and DoD programs,” Vorago’s Hayden says. “To meet that cost/performance/ reliability balance, we leverage our radhard process, but do it with commercialbuilt parts, interjecting the rad-hard capability at the wafer level, which enables us to leverage commercial manufacturing capabilities to keep cost down.” (Figure 2.)

CAES faces similar pressures from their commercial customers. “We continue to see that price pressure not so much on

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Rad-hard electronics design trends

military programs, but in constellation space on the commercial space side,” says Tony Jordan, senior director of business development, Space Systems Division, CAES. “Our response is twofold, bringing commercial technology through qualification, then qualifying it for use in space. We take the reliability risk away by leveraging the pedigree of QML for constellation space, repackaging that die and those wafers and then guaranteeing the wafer performance along the lines the customer requires. This enables the customer to meet their reduced cost requirements while also meeting their radiation and reliability needs.”

It comes down to which development and manufacturing flow satellite integrators choose, Broline says. “There are advantages to being part of a large company that does the majority of their manufacturing for nondefense and space industries. You can take advantage of the existing economies of scale already in place. Also, you have to do your best to set expectations with the customer with these different flows or product types. That helps you to stay cost competitive no matter what the business model is.”

“Our rad-hard and rad-tolerant plastic products have been a good fit that provide a balance between [military and commercial] requirements,” he adds. “Both have their own certain level of radiation capability, where the rad-tolerant favors smaller form factors and cost efficiencies while the rad-hard favors reliability assurance.”

Leveraging high-volume commercial foundries and their flow is critical to lowering the cost of rad-hard products Apogee Semiconductor’s Quiroz says. “We leverage these cost and flow advantages on back end [with our TalRad solution], so, we can really take cost out while maintaining reliability. With larger volumes like in the automotive

world, companies make many lots of ICs, which brings the cost of manufacturing down. We are leveraging those practices where it makes sense, then performing our higher-quality screening process at the lot level followed by extensive screening of 100% of the parts to ensure we are maintaining reliability. That’s the balance.”

The COTS dilemma One might ask whether these lower-cost products are examples of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components being used in space. Not exactly.

“COTS is interesting,” Quiroz says. “Traditionally COTS components have fallen into the category of rad-hard by serendipity, or RHBS. The perception, right or wrong, is that COTS components are not reliable enough for missions where there are likely to be many SEUs. These components often come in plastic packaging and do not go through the same rigorous lot testing rad-hard by

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Rad-hard electronics design trends

design components. SEUs are a real thing and a lot of commercial parts will fail as they cannot withstand the sustained impact of cosmic rays.”

McCurdy and her team are tackling the COTS low-reliability perception by redefining COTS. “There is a perception that these parts are reliable and not properly screened or qualified for long-term space missions,” she says. “So, we’ve changed the definition. We offer full turnkey solutions that we call military off-the-shelf, or MOTS. For example, someone buys a COTS product and then wants to screen it. Of course, as soon as they touch the product to screen it, the warranty gets voided. Then, after a nine-month screening process it still might fail and they get nothing for it even though they still own the expense of the components and the screening costs.

Figure 3 | Pictured are EPC GaNFets from Spirit Electronics.

“Instead, we do all of that for them,” McCurdy continues. “For example, a customer needs 200 flight units. As the distributor we are doing the screening, qualification, and radiation testing, and delivering that specific part number. All the customer needs to do is order that particular Spirit part number and they get full lot traceability and the risk is Spirit’s, not theirs.”

COTS and rad-hard components together For small-sat capability, system designers are looking at how they can marry COTS with rad-hard components in the same platform.

“In some cases, there is a combination rad-hard and COTS in the same system. Our rad-hard microcontrollers can act as a watchdog, monitoring current if something does go sideways with one of the COTS components, and then resetting the system supervisor,” Hayden says. “That is one way integrators may integrate COTS into systems while maintaining reliability – using rad-hard parts for the monitoring or mission-critical functions.”

“With small sats you could dial down the protection in the satellites then leverage COTS sensors in the payload for missions such as missile detection, ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance], and the like,” Young says. “The military could launch a small constellation to demonstrate the capacity of the small sat for these types of missions. It would be physically hard to shoot down 1,000 satellites, because you have to hit to kill all of them, otherwise the constellation is still operational. The microelectronics challenge would be to leverage the commercial manufacturing and commercial parts to get the price down, while ensuring those same components are sufficiently protected from radiation and EMS-type weapons.” For more on small sats, see our Special Report on page 12.

Once again, it comes down to balancing reliability and assurance, McCurdy says.

“In space you want to assure the products on the design that are controlling the critical systems like power management to be rad-hard or rad-tolerant so you know the expected performance. For example, if requirements call for a 12-volt bus on a satellite, you rely on the GaN FET and its radiation resistance to step down the power in the system to manage the lower power products like a LPDDR4.” Spirit offers the Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) Corp.’s GaNFets. (Figure 3.)

Open standards More COTS procurement – depending on your definition – may often coincide with greater adoption of open architectures and open standards.

“System engineering is so much easier with open-architecture designs,” CAES’s Young says. “It’s common sense, but unfortunately until it is widely distributed it work with proprietary systems. [That said] we are seeing demand for the RISC-V standard as opposed to PowerPC in NASA procurements. NASA tends to certify SBCs [singleboard computers] and then make certified SBCs available to all deep-space missions.” www.militaryembedded.com

Figure 4 | The CAES Gaisler GR765 microprocessor is based on the company’s LEON5FT fault-tolerant processor core.

“The move toward RISC-V enables us to bring more cores to the table with more DMIPS,” CAES’s Jordan notes.

“We are looking at a 16-core solution that gets 30,000 DMIPS, which would be perfect for robotics and autonomous applications, where it would sit behind an antenna or aperture and do intensive number-crunching. We continue to see activity under the NASA Artemis program and other applications for our memory and microprocessor products, including the GR765 microprocessor designed for the European Space Agency.”

(Figure 4.)

As price pressures mount, there is also growing demand for a military plasticpackaging standard for space. “One of the big gaps in the military space industry is that there isn’t a standard for plastic packaging,” Quiroz says.

“However, work has begun on a plastic standard within JEDEC [Joint Electron Device Engineering Council] and the DLA [Defense Logistics Agency]. Much work has yet to be done and the process could be years away, but that an effort is underway to standardize plastic in the military is significant and a positive sign.

There is the SAE AS6294 standard that enables upscreening of plastic parts, but it doesn’t comprehend designing a rad-hard plastic part from the ground up, which is what the proposed standard seeks to do.”

MES

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

How a robust FPGA supply chain assures defense industry preparedness

By Martin Hart In the world of defense-grade FPGA [field-programmable gate array] devices, solder column attachment is the weakest link in the assembly process. Today, 90% of America’s FPGA device makers rely on a single subcontractor to attach solder columns, creating a potential supply chain vulnerability. The problem can be solved by engaging multiple subcontractors already established throughout North America. Device makers just need to qualify these alternative subcontractors in order to assure sustainability and resiliency of the defense-grade FPGA supply.

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Rad-hard electronics design trends

Manufacturing resiliency and sustainability of defense-grade and radiationhardened (rad-hard) FPGAs [field-programmable gate arrays] are vital to U.S. and allied national security. FPGA devices keep defense systems operational and warfighters flying. Peace across the globe going forward may ultimately depend upon military preparedness and readiness to respond to global threats.

A sudden surge in demand for defense-grade FPGA devices would put intense pressure on the industry to meet such a challenge. One unplanned disruption in manufacturing capability could bring the supply chain to a halt, causing downstream customers to wait for deliveries of FPGA components.

Nine of the 10 U.S. device makers rely on a single subcontractor to attach solder columns as a final production step in the manufacturing of defense-grade FPGAs and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), according to data published by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) in the Qualified Manufacturer List (QML-38535).

By 2025, an estimated 80,000 ruggedized ceramic packaged FPGA and ASIC devices will be produced annually, all of which require solder columns. An additional 50,000 high pin-count system-in-package (SiP) devices used for 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), 2D/3D packages, and large-scale silicon antennas will also require columns. No single subcontractor currently has the throughput to attach columns to all of these components. (Figure 1.)

As of summer 2021, column attachment services were provided by just one qualified subcontractor for 90% of the industry’s FPGA makers. However, this scenario does not support a sustainable and resilient manufacturing environment.

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

www.militaryembedded.com

While ruggedized FPGA components are uniquely vital to the stability of the defense and aerospace industry, this low-volume production is miniscule when compared to standard commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices which are annually produced by the billions.

The value that defense-grade components bring to a FPGA maker’s overall bottom line is trivial when compared to other sources of revenue. As such, FPGA makers are reluctant to incur additional costs to qualify alternative subcontractors for column attachment.

2025 FORECAST DEMAND COLUMN ATTACHMENT SERVICES Number Device Packages

Average Columns Per Package

Total Quantity Columns

Traditional FPGA & ASIC for aerospace & defense industry

80,000

1,250

100 million

New Applications, 5G, A.I., 2D/3D System in Package for Massively Large Data Centers

50,000

6,000

300 million

Total

130,000

–

400 million

Customer Applications

Figure 1 | Usage of columns expected to rise due to packages for new applications with larger number of columns per package.

How will the defense and aerospace market be assured of a stable supply of FPGA devices with solder columns five years from now? Or even 20 years from now?

Risk mitigation Uninterrupted continuation of the supply of defense-grade FPGA with solder columns must not be taken for granted.

The supply chain can suddenly face interruption due to events that could include natural disasters (earthquake, flood, fire), a breakdown of essential manufacturing equipment, or the loss of key personnel due to retirement, death or incapacity. Threats to business continuity can turn existential should a hostile foreign entity acquire the nation’s current qualified subcontractor that performs 90% of solder column attachment for the industry. Even a facility relocation can result in the loss of QML status, pending requalification.

Ruggedized ceramic package FPGA components for defense and aerospace require solder columns rather than solder balls as a critical subcomponent in the final assembly of FPGA packages. Solder columns – which extend the FPGA device life in harsh environments for critical missions – also reduce stress between the FPGA and the printed circuit board (PCB) caused by mismatching materials with inherently different coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) properties.

Consequences of fabless manufacturing Many makers of FPGA components operate under a cost-effective business model of “fabless manufacturing.” While the intellectual property of the silicon die (wafer) may be proprietary to a specific www.militaryembedded.com

Figure 2 | FPGA column grid array package (right) is constructed by attaching solder columns to an LGA (land grid array) package (left).

FPGA maker, most if not all of the package assembly is performed by independent subcontractors under the control of the fabless FPGA maker.

Fabrication and attachment of solder columns is not a simple matter. Solder column attachment services are not procured through standard COTS distribution channels; rather, column attachment services require specialized equipment as well as skilled, proficient operators. Moreover, the subcontractor must be highly competent in the process of solder column attachment. (Figure 2.)

A straightforward approach to mitigating risk could actually be achieved: FPGA makers could immediately qualify multiple domestic subcontractors that already have capability and experience to attach solder columns to FPGA and ASIC devices.

It could take more than 24 months for FPGA makers to qualify each additional subcontractor, who must undergo meticulous examination and certification by DLA for column attachment services on defense-grade FPGA components.

Historical perspective The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) published a report in 2018 called “Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States,” which remarkably identified risks that threaten America’s manufacturing and defense industrial base. The report described ten “risk archetypes” that contribute to weaknesses in the supply chain: 1) sole source, 2) single source, 3) fragile supplier, 4) fragile market, 5) capacity-constrained supply market, 6) foreign dependency, 7) diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages, 8) gap in the U.S.-based human capital, 9) erosion of U.S.-based infrastructure, and 10) product security. It could be argued that the industry’s dependency on a singlesource supplier of column attachment services meets the criteria for most of these risk archetypes.

One need only recall when, in 2013, the supply chain suffered a painful halt in deliveries of defense-grade FPGA devices after IBM declared its intention to exit the ceramic column grid array (CCGA) business. For more than a decade, IBM had played a vital role as the primary fabricator for many fabless makers of FPGA devices, most notably Xilinx.

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Rad-hard electronics design trends

After IBM issued an end-of-life announcement, its entire world-class column attachment production line was taken out of service and sat idle in crates for five years before being redeployed by a licensee. As a result of IBM’s withdrawal from the market, Xilinx was forced to move production of rugged FPGA packages to Kyocera and to select Silicon Valley-based Six-Sigma as the sole-source subcontractor to perform column attachment services. Xilinx, which was acquired by AMD in 2020, provides roughly half of the current volume of defense-grade and rad-hard FPGA devices.

What to do?

Mitigating risk by qualifying additional vendors to perform solder column attachment is straightforward, and realistic. Best practice is to qualify one or more alternative suppliers as a hedge in case the current sole-source supplier fails to meet production needs.

Fortunately, alternative subcontractors with experience to provide column attachment services already exist. For example, VPT Components and Micross Components have experience attaching solder columns. Additional subcontractors – including Golden Altos, Silitronics, BGA Test and Technology and others – are developing plans to provide column attachment services in the future. These alternative subcontractors can be thought of as a national resource which can be harnessed for the benefit of the aerospace and defense industries. For its part, TopLine manufactures copper wrapped Pb80/Sn20 solder columns at its facility in Orange County, California and also makes a turnkey family of tooling to attach columns to FPGA packages.

The first step in qualifying additional providers of column attachment services involves requiring the new subcontractors to prove their capabilities in conformance with the latest revision of MIL-STD-883, Test Method 2009, Section 3.3.6. As part of that process, typically, the FPGA maker provides functional devices or daisy-chain mechanical

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RUGGED COTS SOLUTIONS

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Since 1987, Interface Concept has been a leading developer and manufacturer of leading-edge HPEC embedded boards and systems for military, aerospace and industrial applications.

Elma Electronic Inc. is the North American sales and support provider for Interface Concept.

38 June 2021

www.elma.com sales@elma.com • 510-656-3400

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

DLA [the Defense Logistics Agency] is requested to audit and certify the subcontractor after the FPGA maker is satisfied with quality of the subcontractor. packages to the subcontractor, who then attaches solder columns. The packages need to meet the QML-38535 quality requirements, post-column attach, specified by the FPGA device makers and users. A solder column package destructive lead pull test is also performed according to guidelines established by MIL-STD-883, Test Method 2038, with failures duly recorded. DLA is requested to audit and certify the subcontractor after the FPGA maker is satisfied with quality of the subcontractor.

A variety of unanticipated delays are possible. In March 2020, travel by DLA employees to conduct facility audits was shelved due to COVID-19 restrictions. At present, DLA has not made clear when DLA personnel will resume travel to conduct QML-38535 audits and to certify subcontractors. Assuming Murphy’s Law (in short, anything that can go wrong will go wrong), the qualification process and DLA certification could take 24 months or more to complete. MES Martin Hart is CEO of TopLine Corp., which manufactures solder columns for use on column grid array (CGA)/FPGA/ ASIC packages. He holds an electrical engineering degree from California State University, Long Beach. Hart holds 12 U.S. patents in the fi elds of CGAs and particle impact dampers for mitigating extreme random vibration in harsh environments.

TopLine Corp. www.toplinecorp.com/contact.html www.militaryembedded.com

DDR4 and More: Upscreened, Qualified and Off-the-Shelf Spirit Electronics performs OEM-level electrical testing, screening and qualification of Micron DDR4 devices to requirements for Aerospace and Defense applications.

Qualified for extended temperature range and designated as enhanced screened, pedigreed with traceability, lot controls and lot specific data, they accelerate deployment to market with done-for-you qualification or PEM Quals.

Micron DDR4 Qualified for LEO Space -40°C to 125°C FEATURES • Fully characterized and tested over extended temperatures at FULL SPEED, 3.2GHz – only available at Spirit Electronics • Screen, Qual and Radiation Testing to SCD customer specific application • Apply Spirit screening flow to any part number and density in Micron product families, including DDR2, DDR3 and Flash • Let Spirit’s lines build power and frequency control around your memory: o EPC Space high-reliability radiation hardened enhancement-mode gallium nitride power management solutions for space and harsh environments o Rakon high-reliability space-grade oscillators

480-998-1533 info@SpiritElectronics.com www.SpiritElectronics.com

Reduce Space Flight Power Distribution Complexity and Risk CAES’ UT36/05PFD103 are the space industry’s first integrated and smart power switch controllers that combine four critical satellite power switching functions into one device to deliver more capability, reliability and safety, while using less power, wiring and components.

TS4031

Radiation-Hardened 64-ch GPIO, 32-ch 10-bit ADC The TS4031 is a high-performance, highly integrated mixed signal device for system monitoring and control applications requiring radiation hardness. It consists of a 32-channel analog input mux, a 10-bit ADC, two voltage references, 64 programmable digital I/O, with a SPI for device configuration and data acquisition. Built on structured A/MS array technology allowing for easy modifications without impacting radiation hardness.

FEATURES • eFUSEs for safer 10x faster short circuit protection • Integrated voltage and current conversion for telemetry • Comprehensive fault detection and recovery • Command and control through PMBus for space • Less risk, weight and size than discrete component approaches • QML-Q/-V planned Q4 2021; prototypes and evaluation board available now

UT36PFD103 (8V-36V) & UT05PFD103 (5V) Smart Power Switch Controller

https://caes.com/product/ut36pfd103

FEATURES • 32 Channel analog input mux • ADC o Resolution: 10 bits o Sample rate: 10 MSPS o SNR: 59 dBFS o SFDR: 70 dBFS • On-chip Voltage References • SPI Interface • 64-pin digital GPIO bidirectional • Operating Temperature Range: -55°C to +125°C • Package: 144-lead plastic BGA Package – 13mm x 13mm, 1.0mm pitch Radiation Hardness • TID > 300 krads(Si) • SEL > 80 MeV-cm2/mg (LET)

www.triadsemi.com/product/ts4031/ info@triadsemi.com

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Radiation singleevent effects: the invisible enemy

By Richard Sharp and Malcolm Thomson Cosmic rays are able to cause the failure of electronics in service and may be difficult to separate from other causes of reliability issues. While the electronics failure rate has been reduced to a level acceptable in a commercial context (for example, how often does your computer hang nowadays, compared with 20 years ago?), the military requirements surrounding failure are more stringent.

Additional measures are necessary both to achieve the level of confidence demanded for such applications and to prevent the malfunction or total failure of satellites, rockets, missiles, aircraft, unmanned systems, and other equipment.

40 June 2021

Rad-hard electronics design trends

Ionizing radiation presents an invisible and unpredictable threat to field electronics. The potential for a single high-energy atomic particle to destroy semiconductors has been known in space for decades, but has also become a real issue even at ground level.

Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) are high-energy particles that come from outside the solar system. GCRs abound in space, but they also penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere. Their impact at sea level – or single-event effect (SEE) – is wellknown in the semiconductor industry. SEEs can be either destructive or nondestructive but will both increase the risk of a mission failure. To prevent mission faiture, SEE testing must be performed on the ground to quantify the risks and, if necessary, develop a mitigation plan.

The need to test Radiation hardness does not happen by accident; design techniques and part selection must be conducted carefully to ensure reliable operation. Testing and verifying the proper functionality of electronic systems against the threat of ionizing radiation is often perceived as time-consuming and expensive. Modeling helps with the design, but SEEs can often come up unexpectedly, which means that testing of the final product is always necessary.

Testing for cosmic-ray effects requires the use of a large particle accelerator, as defined in a number of U.S. Defense Standards, or MIL-STDs. Unfortunately, there are only a few particle accelerators in existence and not enough available beam time. This lack of access is exacerbated at the current time, as the space industry is growing rapidly, increasing the pressure on these facilities. The wait

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radiation testing possible, quickly and easily, to match tight product development schedules. In many cases, a final verification at an accelerator might still be required, but all of the screening and development can be done with the laser. Translation: Confidence that the product under test will very likely pass at a traditional facility. An additional benefit is that access to this kind of testing enables engineers to build in radiation-hardness assurance at a basic product level, from the very beginning of the design process. Early and fast test data can inform the design, in contrast with forcing engineers to change track with a nearly finished product. Test data speeds up the development process and keeps costs down.

The latest industrial pulsed lasers can blind a person at more than 10 miles.

This is the equivalent energy to a single cosmic ray that can burn out a microchip. Laser SEE test systems deliver this energy precisely and in a controlled fashion on the surface of a microchip to identify whether it will survive a cosmic ray strike. Figure 1 shows an array of laser spots overlaid onto a silicon die.

The size of the red spots indicates the magnitude of the response to the radiation pulse and where the design might be improved. Screening parts like this, early in the design phase for a product, gives you confidence that you have selected the right components to ensure your equipment will not fail in service.

Figure 1 | Overlay of an array of laser spots on a microchip die.

for access can be as long as six months, whether in the U.S. or in Europe.

Pulsed lasers – the new alternative A recent development now brings the prospect of disrupting the SEE testing roadblock by providing low-cost and fast access to a new test methodology.

Powerful, ultrafast, pulsed lasers can deliver the same effect as a cosmic ray. Benchtop-sized instruments make www.militaryembedded.com

Full characterization of a complex part, such as a microprocessor, is simply too expensive and time-consuming for traditional techniques. NASA recently estimated that fully testing just a single device would require 14 years of beam time. In reality, a few tens of hours might be all that is available. Use of a laser SEE test system means that testing can run 24/7, in the lab or at a facility, making it much easier to accumulate critical statistics and establish confidence in the products.

Using a laser-based SEE testing system instead of trying to garner a spot at a particle accelerator ensures that testing can be done earlier in the design

Figure 2 | SEREEL2 laser-based SEE testing system with test sample on movement stages. Photo courtesy RTS.

process. Figure 2 shows a typical laserbased testing configuration with a test sample mounted on the precise movement stages. MES Richard Sharp is CEO of Radtest Ltd. (which was acquired

by RTS in April of 2021). With more than 30 years of experience in the radiation-effects field, Richard brings insight into radiation testing not only for the space sector but also for applications in the military, nuclear, and high-energy physics fields.

Malcolm Thomson, president of RTS, has spent his career in the software and aerospace industries after graduating with a Masters in Computer Science from Hatfield University, Hertfordshire, U.K. He has been a successful entrepreneur and leader, including the formation of a software company that was listed on the NASDAQ and later purchased

by Oracle. Prior to joining RTS, Malcolm was the General Manager of Cobham RAD and previously served as the Director of Operations for Aeroflex RAD. Radiation Test Solutions www.radiationtestsolutions.com

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Rad-hard electronics design trends

New solutions to radiation-hardened mixed-signal integration

By James C. Kemerling

Radiation-hardened analog/mixed-signal ASICs [application-specific integrated circuits] present significant challenges in terms of cost, development time, and qualification. One of the most promising new approaches applies structure to the analog/ mixed-signal design process and fabrication methodology in the same way FPGAs [field-programmable gate arrays] and structured arrays have done for digital ASICs.

As of October 2020, there were nearly 6,000 satellites orbiting the earth. About 40% of those were operational. The rest are “space trash.” In March 2021 SpaceX had launched 1,300 Starlink satellites with plans to have 42,000 operational in the next few decades.

Satellite market expansion and new defense/aerospace technology are driving the need for analog/mixed signal (A/ MS) radiation-hardened (RH) integrated circuits (ICs). RH field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and microprocessors satisfy digital requirements, but analog parts must use either commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) ICs or develop custom solutions (for example, an RH A/MS custom ASIC). RH A/MS applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs) offer the best solution for size, weight, and power (SWaP) reduction, but are costly to develop, take a long time to design and qualify, and carry significant risk.

COTS ICs do not have the development cost and qualification issues, but they are unable to achieve the same level of SWaP reduction. In addition, COTS ICs are subject to obsolescence concerns. Figure 1 summarizes the issues confronting system designers trying to achieve higher levels of integration.

Using analog/mixed-signal ASICs Moore’s Law has been driving the semiconductor industry for decades. Microprocessors and FPGAs keep packing more and more transistors into smaller

42 June 2021

and smaller areas. However, analog ICs have not been shrinking at the same rate as their digital counterparts. Most analog circuits are still fabricated on process technology far behind the state of the art and fabricated on semiconductor processes with a minimum feature size greater than 0.18 micron. A simple mixed-signal circuit such as a switched capacitor filter, with fewer than 100 transistors, can consume as much area as an 8-bit microcontroller.

Digital circuits deal with ones and zeros. Consequently, adding structure to digital design has been relatively straightforward. From yesterday’s Karnaugh Maps – a graphical method of reducing a digital circuit to its minimum number of gates – to present-day hardware description languages (e.g., Verilog and VHDL) the focus has been structure.

The electronic design automation (EDA) industry has helped by developing sophisticated tools enabling digital designers to work at a higher level of abstraction and make use of structured top-down design methodologies. In contrast, analog IC designers must deal with an infinite number of signal levels between one and zero. Structure has been attempted in the form of analog HDLs, but for the most part, analog designers still work at the most primitive levels, creating transistor-level schematics, running simulations, and performing manual layout. Frequently, A/MS ICs are not production-worthy after initial fabrication, which means a design change and another fabrication iteration.

In fact, iterations of RH ICs can be prohibitively expensive.

Alternatives to full-custom A/MS ASICs There are two alternatives to the traditional full-custom approach for A/MS integration: field-programmable and mask-programmable. These alternatives are semicustom, not full custom, yet they come with many of the benefits of full custom while minimizing the issues with development cost, design time, qualification, and risk.

The field-programmable analog array (FPAA) is the analog equivalent to the digital FPGA. Due to the nature of analog design, FPAAs have not proven to be a practical solution for implementing a wide variety of analog circuits. They are good for prototyping specific circuits, and in some cases are a good fit for production. Their biggest advantage: They can be reprogrammed in the field; be aware, however, that fieldprogrammable parts come with increased power consumption and greater circuit area as compared with their non-programmable counterparts.

The Infineon programmable system-on-chip (PSoC) is a field-programmable alternative offering an A/MS solution integrating configurable analog and digital macro blocks around a microcontroller and memory. The analog system in a PSoC can be

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

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Figure 2a

Figure 2b

Figure 1 | Issues in achieving higher levels of integration in analog/mixed-signal ICs.

programmed to implement comparators, analog muxes, analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and more. As such, the PSoC is an excellent mixed-signal solution for applications where extensive analog customization is not required.

In general, field-programmable architectures provide a good solution to size and weight, but frequently run into challenges minimizing power consumption. This situation is due to the inherent overhead associated with field programmability.

Mask-configurable arrays have been around for decades. Initially referred to as gate arrays, and later as structured arrays, these have been used extensively to achieve higher levels of integration in digital circuits. Moreover, there have been some recent advances incorporating analog circuits into structured arrays.

Specifically, A/MS structured arrays have been used to implement a wide variety of high-performance analog functions while requiring only a single metal-layer modification for configuration. Figure 2(a) shows a simple analog signal path consisting of a transimpedance amplifier (TIA), a lowpass filter, a gain block, and an ADC. Figure 2(b) shows a more complex circuit with four digital-to-analog-converters (DACs), four lowpass filters, and four gain blocks, all controlled by a serial peripheral interface (SPI). Both circuits can be instantiated on the same A/MS structured array. In other words, these arrays are capable of “sweeping up” several offthe-shelf components into a single IC – resulting in SWaP optimization.

Furthermore, since a single A/MS array can be used to implement several different devices, they are essentially immune to obsolescence. www.militaryembedded.com

Figure 2a/2b | (a) simple circuit on A/MS array and (b) complex circuit on A/MS array.

Radiation-hardening of ICs Silicon based ICs in outer space are subject to the transient and long-term effects of radiation. Some of the common transient effects or single-event effects (SEE) include single-event upsets (SEU), single-event transients (SET), and single-event latch-up (SEL). Long-term effects generally result from exposure to ionizing energy or total ionizing dose (TID) and typically cause transistor threshold voltage shifts and mobility degradation.

The two most common approaches to minimizing the effects of radiation are radiation hardened by process (RHBP) and radiation hardened by design (RHBD). RHBP requires a specialized semiconductor process such as silicon-on-insulator (SOI), a process that is generally more costly and not widely available. RHBD is a series of electrical and layout techniques that when properly applied, can mitigate the effects of radiation on commercially available, bulk CMOS processes. Commercial semiconductor foundries typically manufacture several thousand bulk CMOS wafers per month and have process controls in place to ensure minimal variation from die to die, wafer to wafer, and lot to lot. TID levels greater than 300 krad(Si) and SEL greater than 80 MeV-cm2/mg (LET [linear energy transfer]) using RHBD on commercial bulk CMOS processes have been achieved.

Either RHBP or RHBD work well with A/MS array technology. Once an array has been qualified for radiation and reliability, new devices created by instantiating a new design on the qualified array do not require additional qualification (qualification by similarity). This can save substantial time in development and qualification. MES James C. Kemerling is the chief technical officer at Triad Semiconductor. He is responsible for analog and mixed-signal mask-programmable technology development. His background includes over 30 years of experience with mixed-signal IC design and system-level development. He has published several papers in analog circuit design and signal processing. He can be reached at jkemerling@triadsemi.com.

Triad Semiconductor • www.triadsemi.com

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

June 2021

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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT

Rad-hard electronics design trends

Parts, materials, and processes (PMP) and radiation hardening for space and defense systems

By Barry A. Posey and Bryan F. Hughes

Using cutting-edge microcircuits in space and defense systems with natural space-radiation requirements, while risky, also comes with potential rewards. There is a path for insertion of these cutting-edge solutions into space and defense systems: The use of a parts, materials, and process (PMP) program.

The performance and capability demands on electronic space systems for both the defense and commercial arenas continue to increase. Such systems – designed and manufactured for military, space, and launch vehicle applications – must exhibit the highest quality and reliability standards. Therefore, all hardware and processes, including design guidelines and fabrication procedures, must be managed and controlled. Controlling these factors must be the primary objective of an organization’s parts, materials, and processes (PMP) program.

Requirements review An environmental requirements document may include thermal, pressure, acceleration design, acoustic, random vibration, shock, humidity, radiation, atomic oxygen, thermal vacuum, and electromagnetic interference/electromagnetic compatibility environments. Component and radiation-effects engineers will be assigned by the Mission Assurance Manager to develop plans to ensure compliance to these requirements.

These engineers examine system-specific design guidelines and requirements pertaining to part-qualification ratings, part and subsystem parameter derating requirements, system interface requirements, etc. to ensure compliance; they also develop procedures for controlling and implementing material and part waivers and deviations as required via inclusion in the PMP program. Also included would be procedures for reviewing and approving engineering drawings and engineering change orders (ECOs) for applicable parts, materials, or manufacturing impacts.

PMP program A detailed PMP program ensures the selection, application, and procurement of standardized electrical and mechanical parts, materials, and processes that are controlled to meet contractual requirements, improve system quality and reliability, and reduce program costs. The key to a successful PMP program really is documentation. Program requirements must be understood, parts and materials selection criteria must be specified, and manufacturing processes must be documented and approved. (Figure 1.)

44 June 2021

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

A typical PMP program focuses on the following areas: › › › ›

Program-specific design guidelines Electrical and mechanical approved-parts lists Material identification/usage list Specialized electrical and mechanical fabrication processes

Each of these areas contains numerous lower-tier functions which must be controlled and documented. Because of the complexity and importance of these efforts, many organizations have a PMP group separate from the engineering or quality core groups. These PMP groups are typically staffed by electrical-component engineers, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, and process engineers. The Department of Defense Handbook MIL-HDBK-1547A, “Electronic Parts, Materials, and Processes for Space and Launch Vehicles,” offers guidelines for implementing and maintaining a PMP program.

Bill of materials (BOM) development One of the key PMP program functions involves establishing requirements for the development and maintenance of an approved electrical-parts list and an approved mechanical-parts list. These approved-parts lists (along with the material identification/usage list discussed below) are the basis of a successful PMP program. The requirements set forth for the selection, qualification, and approval of electrical and mechanical parts for inclusion in the approved-parts lists directly affect the ability of the end system to meet all contractual requirements. This process typically involves selecting industry-standard component specifications for electrical and mechanical parts (i.e., military specifications) or creating unique specification control drawings (SCDs) for each part type used in the final system. Control documentation must also be created to provide guidelines for performing the required qualification and lot acceptance tests necessary for each part type. Requested deviations from these approved lists must be thoroughly researched, documented, and approved to ensure that all component and system level specification requirements are met. These deviations are typically requested and approved using a controlled Non-Standard Parts Approval Request (NSPAR) or a waiver process. www.militaryembedded.com

of the circuit. Test planning is most critical and may consume up to one-third of the test budget. It is most important to follow established radiation test methodologies along with detailed and vetted test plans.

Procurement of electronic components that will meet cost, schedule, and performance requirements is the goal. In the event that an established part number cannot be procured, the component engineer may have to create a source control document (SCD) that provides part descriptions and added screening tests needed.

Procurement of electronic components that will meet cost, schedule, and performance requirements is the goal. In the event that an established Figure 1 | The radiation hardening assurance process is a cycle with five key areas. Scientic graphic.

Similar to an approved-parts list, the material identification/ usage list is a menu of materials qualified and approved for specific applications. Typically, this list will also document approved material finishes for specific environments and applications and will address any compatibility issues with other materials or finishes in the final system.

The PMP program must provide for the documentation, control, and approval of any unique or specialized electrical and mechanical fabrication processes used to manufacture all circuits, components, and subsystems in the end system. This method typically involves identifying the accepted industry standards or military specifications that cover processes such as machining and metalwork, circuit-board fabrication, component soldering operations, electrical wiring, and the like, and certifying that all work performed meets these standards and specifications.

Radiation assurance Radiation-hardness assurance tasks include the identification of the radiation-sensitive parts in the BOM, which requires research to obtain valid data from radiation reports. The radiation analysis will apply valid statistical methods to determine confidence level for the total ionizing dose (TID) and displacement damage (DD) tolerance of the part and assess the likelihood of single-event effects (SEE) to determine the probability of success P(s) with data using error-bars in the analysis.

Shielding analysis can be performed using radiation-transport tools such as NOVICE, FASTRAD, GEANT4, and MCNP to model radiation-transport methods and effects. These modeling tools enable the design and 3D modeling of spacecraft and discrete space system components offering multiple views, including cross-sections, blueprints, cutaways, and blend operations, thereby enabling skilled radiation engineers to quickly perform complete analysis of radiation effects.

After performing shielding analysis, it may be necessary to perform radiation lot acceptance testing (RLAT) or characterization of specific electronic components depending on the criticality www.militaryembedded.com

part number cannot be procured, the component engineer may have to create a source control document (SCD) that provides part descriptions and added screening tests needed.

Example: Program with a TID specification of 60 krad (Si), and an assumed 100 mil of shielding was established. A large number of 100 krad (Si) TID rated DC-DC converters were selected by circuit designers to meet program specification.

However, the number of converters, the cost per converter, and lead times kept mounting and became prohibitive. Radiation engineers completed shielding analysis that determined the TID exposure in the volume of interest was 16 krad (Si) over all converters for mission life. By procuring existing converters with less TID tolerance, the program saved 75% of the cost of a higher-TID-tolerant converter while reducing device lead times.

In short: The benefit of a robust component engineering and radiation hardness assurance approach will lead to electronic components that meet reliability, quality, and radiation tolerance requirements while reducing program risk, cost, and schedule. MES Barry A. Posey, director of component engineering at Scientic, has led numerous component and radiationassurance engineering programs over his career. Barry received his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering technology from Alabama A&M University.

He may be reached at barry.posey@scientic.com.

Bryan F. Hughes is VP of operations and senior scientist at Scientic. He has 25 years’ experience in experimental and applied physics associated with the impact of radiation effects on semiconductors. Bryan received his Master of Science in physics from the University of North Texas. He may be reached at bryan.hughes@scientic.com.

Scientic • https://www.scientic.com/

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

June 2021

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CONNECTING WITH MIL EMBEDDED

By Editorial Staff

GIVING BACK | PODCAST | WHITE PAPER | BLOG | VIDEO | SOCIAL MEDIA | WEBCAST GIVING BACK

Headstrong

Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different charitable organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day. To back that up, our parent company – OpenSystems Media – will make a donation to every group we showcase on this page.

This issue we are highlighting Headstrong, a 501(c)(3) non-profit project dedicated to finding and providing cost-free, stigma-free, confidential, and effective mental-health services for post-9/11 veterans. The organization was founded in 2012 by former Marine Captain Zach Iscol, who had served two distinguished tours of duty in Iraq. Through a partnership with Weill Cornell Medical College, one of the nation’s leading mental health care centers, the organization developed a comprehensive mental-health treatment program for post-9/11 veterans dealing with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], addiction, anxiety and depression, trauma, grief and loss, and anger management.

To date, Headstrong has identified and treats approximately 1,000 clients per month in 12 states and 28 markets. According to information from the organization, it aims to spread more widely across the U.S. using individually tailored in-person and telehealth mental-health treatment programs to reach not only post-9/11 vets but also active-duty service members, members of the National Guard and Reserves, veterans of all eras, and spouses, regardless of their characterization of discharge or combat status.

To administer its programs, Headstrong maintains a network of highly skilled senior therapists across the country, helping clients match with the best therapists in a location convenient for the client. It also partners with other medical institutions, veterans’ services organizations, and city and state mental-health awareness groups.

Headstrong has garnered an unusual 100% “Encompass” score from Charity Navigator attesting to good practices for its finances and accountability. For additional information on Headstrong, please visit https://getheadstrong.org/.

WHITE PAPER

PODCAST

ON THE RADAR: Discussing the trajectory of AI-powered military technology

In the debut episode of “On the Radar,” Military Embedded Systems Technical Editor Emma Helfrich welcomes Editorial Director John McHale for a lively discussion of the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the world of defense electronics.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) now finds itself in a neck-and-neck race toward innovation, right alongside its adversaries. Base-patrolling robot dogs and algorithms designed to understand complex combat scenarios are currently in development, but that’s just the beginning.

Emma and John discuss the current state of military AI and machine learning (ML), how these advancements are being financed, and the obstacles that stand in innovation’s way. Also covered: the concept of defining the ethics of ML-powered systems and DoD research and development funding for AI. This podcast is sponsored by Pentek.

Listen to this podcast: https://bit.ly/3w1A0rX Listen to more podcasts: www.militaryembedded.com/podcasts

46 June 2021

MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

AI for Embedded Defense is Here

By Stuart Heptonstall, Senior Product Manager, Abaco Systems A mammoth leap in embedded processing power is being harnessed to enable real-time artificial intelligence (AI) applications based on deep-learning techniques and sophisticated inference engines.

In fact, advanced research and development efforts are already underway to build the first applications based on these linked technologies. To this end, Abaco offers the GVC1001, a rugged, evaluation-ready computing platform featuring the computing engines, I/O, and software support that make deployable AI a reality for embedded defense.

Based on the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier system-on-module, the GVC1001 delivers up to 10 teraFLOPS (HP16) or up to 32 TOPs (int8) peak performance; it is, essentially, an embedded supercomputer.

The computing power of the GVC1001 is configured so as to support a new generation of AI applications, from hyperspectral image fusion to autonomous vehicle operations.

Read this white paper: https://bit.ly/3crGloS Read more white papers: https://militaryembedded.com/whitepapers

www.militaryembedded.com

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