Intersil announced the first three members of its new family of radiation-tolerant plastic-package ICs designed to support the emerging field of small LEO (low Earth orbit) satellites that will provide solutions such as high-speed Internet connections.
Intersil’s radiation-tolerant plastic parts include the ISL71026M 3.3V controller area network (CAN) transceiver, ISL71444M 40V quad precision rail-to-rail input and output (RRIO) op amp, and the ISL71001M 6A point-of-load (POL) voltage regulator. These ICs deliver rad-tolerance performance at a much lower cost point versus radiation assurance tested Class V (space level) products. All three ISL71xxxM devices go through characterization testing, which includes total ionizing doze (TID) up to 30krads (Si) for single event effects (SEE).
The ISL71xxxM are also well suited for high altitude (>40km) avionic systems, launch vehicles that are prone to heavy ions, and medical equipment where radiation is a concern.