BAE Systems has been awarded a US$ 60 million contract from the Army Contracting Command – Rock Island under the Cornerstone Other Transaction Authority, to develop certain types of next-generation, radiation hardened by design (RHBD) microelectronics, leveraging Intel Corporation’s commercial foundry, Intel Foundry Services.
The main goal of the program is to expand onshore access to state-of-the-art microelectronics technology for the United States government and aerospace community.
Currently, this type of technology is available through limited sources in the U.S. This leads to supply chain challenges and time lags for the delivery of next-generation microelectronics designed for environmentally rugged missions like those occurring in space.
Harnessing Intel’s commercial foundry process
With this contract, BAE Systems’ FAST Labs research and development organization will harness Intel’s commercial foundry process to build a new design library that can be used to develop advanced, high-reliability microelectronics and expand the domestic supply of this technology for the defense and aerospace community.
Leveraging Intel’s commercial foundry to manufacture the technology can speed up the production
“Radiation hardened electronics are highly specialized mission critical technology,” said Chris Rappa, Director at BAE Systems’ FAST Labs.
He adds, “Leveraging Intel’s commercial foundry to manufacture this technology can speed up the production of next-generation technology and help resolve supply chain challenges so we can maintain our country’s technological edge.”
a roadmap for the U.S. defense Community
This award opens a roadmap for the U.S. Defense and Aerospace community to access more advanced process nodes for the development of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC).
Currently, the development of RHBD ASICs uses a 45nm process, but with this contract, there is potential to deploy more advanced technology nodes and enable more functionality and faster processing in smaller areas, at lower power.
BAE Systems' collaboration
In addition to working with Intel Foundry Services, BAE Systems will execute on this program through collaboration with a team composed of Cadence Design Systems, Carnegie Mellon University, Movellus, Reliable MicroSystems, and Sandia National Laboratories.
This work builds on the company’s longstanding heritage of delivering electronics capable of successfully completing missions in the most challenging environments. BAE Systems will perform work on the program at its facilities in Merrimack, N.H. and Manassas, Va., USA.
