Radiation-tolerant FPGAs power infra-red sounder

ITT uses Xilinx Virtex-II QPro radiation-tolerant field programmable gate arrays in the Cross-track infra-red sounder.

ITT Corporation has adopted Xilinx Virtex-II QPro radiation-tolerant field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) as a key enabling technology for the Cross-track infra-red sounder (CrIS).

As part of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Satellite System (NPOESS) and NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP), CrIS will collect key atmospheric data to allow for improved calculation of temperature and moisture profiles.

Forecasters use this type of data in weather models to improve global weather predictions, storm tracking, and precipitation forecasts.

CrIS provides over 50x the number of information channels and enables up to the 3x the accuracy of current systems.

The onboard Xilinx QPro devices enable on-orbit signal processing leveraging dedicated DSP resources that allow 27 channels of concurrent filtering and other processing.

ITT, a leading provider of defense electronics and services, is among a growing number of companies to rely on Xilinx leading FPGA technology to enable today's most innovative products for space systems.

"We experienced rapidly evolving requirements at the onset of the design and required flexibility in the event of further changes", said Greg Bellis, Staff Engineer at ITT Space Systems Division.

"Xilinx FPGAs provided a high-performance flexible alternative to ASICs with the radiation-tolerant packaging required to meet our rigid design specifications".

NPOESS is the next-generation low-Earth orbiting environmental data collection and processing system.

Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor, leading a team in the system's design and development.

ITT also leveraged Xilinx Design Services to assist with a portion of the project, including design mitigation for single event upsets (SEU) in space.

"It was a good choice for us", said Les Matheson, Engineering Manager at ITT.

"The nuances of the system required the Xilinx design services team to work together with our team and Xilinx chip designers to achieve optimal design results in a much shorter time frame".

"Reconfigurability plays a key role in addressing three key industry requirements - program re-use, technology insertion and a superior alternative to mask-programmed ASICs and one-time-programmable FPGAs".

"Both the aerospace and defence communities have embraced Xilinx QPro technology for a wide range of applications, including airborne and space systems", said Eric Sivertson, General Manager of Aerospace and Defense products at Xilinx.

The Xilinx QPro FPGA family is a critical component of the Xilinx product portfolio targeted specifically at aerospace and defence customers.

The devices are subject to extensive characterisation and qualification to an extended temperature range of -55 to +125C.

It encompasses the latest FPGA families for both military grade and radiation tolerant applications.

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