High-Performance Single-Chip SAR Analog-to-Digital-Converter (ADC) for Telemetry, Tracking, and Control Payloads in Radiation-Hardened Space Applications

Published  December 2, 2020   0
Single-Chip SAR Analog-to-Digital-Converter from Renesas

Renesas Electronics has released a high-performance ISL73141SEH single-chip 14-Bit, 1-MSPS successive-approximation-register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to support telemetry, tracking, and control payloads in radiation-hardened (rad-hard) space applications. This new analog-to-digital converter delivers high dynamic and static performance including signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the effective number of bits (ENOB), integral nonlinearity (INL), and differential non-linearity (DNL).

The space-grade ISL73141SEH accurately captures real-world analog transmissions and converts them for processing in the digital domain. It completely resets after every sample, once it has cleared the errors that result from a single event upset (SEU) due to heavy-ion radiation during spaceflight. It is one of the key signal-path building blocks in long-duration geosynchronous/geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) communication satellites and manned spacecraft, including lunar space missions.

The ISL73141SEH along with a rad-hard temperature sensor, multiplexer, quad op-amp, ADC driver, LDO, and voltage reference forms a complete sensor interface signal chain solution that accelerates telemetry, tracking and control, and flight computer system development.

Key Features of the ISL73141SEH ADC

  • 1-MSPS throughput rate with no data latency and no missing codes
  • 5V supply dissipates only 60mW
  • High SNR of 82.1dBFS at 5V supply operation
  • Operating from a 3.3V supply at 750-KSPS dissipates only 28mW
  • Single supply operation simplifies system design
  • Highest dynamic performance of 13.3 ENOB, enabling > 12-bit resolution
  • Superior linearity: ±0.5 LSB INL and ±0.2 LSB DNL
  • Full military temperature range of -55°C to +125°C

This new ADC is characterized for enhanced low dose rate-sensitivity (ELDRS) radiation performance up to 75krad(Si) for total ionizing dose (TID) and linear energy transfer (LET) up to 86MeV*cm2/mg for single event effects (SEE). The ISL73141SEH 14-bit, 1-MSPS SAR ADC is available now in a 14-lead ceramic dual flatpack package. Besides, an evaluation board is also available for evaluating device features and performance.