A 128-Mbit DRAM stack from Staktek Corp. in Austin, Texas, is the answer for engineers at Litton Amecom in College Park, Md., who chose the modules for their satellite subsystems because of the devices` cost per Mbit and density.
"We did an industrywide search of stacked technologies," says Susan Ritter, component engineer at Litton Amecom. "We looked at board space and cost per Mbit."
The other plus to Staktek`s modules: they are in production, "whereas some of the other memory applications are still on the drawing board," Ritter continues.
Ritter says engineers deal with the issue of radiation by selecting radiation-tolerant die to go into the stack. Although they are not designed to be rad-hard, she adds, the modules are passing radiation testing in preliminary tests.
Each 128-Mbit stack is about the size of a dime, and about as thick as four dimes. They measure .13 inches high, .845 inches long, and .471 inches wide. Litton Amecom is using 300 to 350 of the modules per system.
"We want to put 40 Gbits into the system," Ritter says, "and given our board size, we can easily do it."
We`re excited about the density, the package size; it`s really impressive the amount of memory you can get in such a small space," she says.
Litton Amecom will field its first units using the Staktek modules in the next four to six months, Ritter says. - K.S.
For more information on Staktek`s stacked memory modules, phone Bill Askins, director of marketing, at 512-454-9531, fax 512-454-9409, or send him an e-mail at [email protected].
Satellite designers at Litton Aeocom satisfied their needs for extremely small and dense solid state memory with the 128-Mbit Staktek DRAM.
