MINNEAPOLIS, 17 March, 2007. Honeywell Inc. in Minneapolis in has developed a one-million bit non volatile static memory component for strategic space electronics applications (see related story).

Built with Honeywell's radiation-hardened, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology, and combined with magnetic thin films, the new memory component provides high reliability for low-voltage systems operating in radiation environments.

"This development provides a proven non volatile memory component for use in strategic space electronics to either replace plated wire memory or for new systems designs," says David Wick, director of microelectronic sales at the Honeywell Defense and Space segment.

The magnetic RAM runs from a 3.3-volt power supply and has high reliability, enabling it to operate through the natural radiation found in space. It offers nearly unlimited read/write cycles (>1e15) and uses Honeywell's 150-nanometer SOI CMOS technology as well as a unique set of wafer processes developed at the company's "Trusted Foundry" in Plymouth, Minn.

"The HXNV0100 is the first of its kind among non volatile memory products," Wick says. "The memory array and control electronics are both radiation hardened."

The Honeywell Plymouth, Minnesota facility is one of just two radiation-hardened wafer foundries in the United States to earn the Department of Defense's Accreditation of Trust. The accreditation applies to the company's 0.15-micron, 0.35-micron and 0.8-micron silicon wafer processes.

Silicon wafers are used to make Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and memory components, which are subsequently used in obsolete replacement programs, commercial and military avionics systems, payload electronics for commercial and military space systems, inertial measurement units, flight control systems and many other aerospace systems.

More information is available at www.honeywell.com/radhard.