Operating technology in space is no easy task.
Harsh conditions like intense radiation from solar flares and cosmic rays, extreme temperatures, and flying debris can all damage electronics.
One of the most serious threats is radiation, which can interfere with computer chips and cause them to malfunction—especially in parts of the chip that store data.
To deal with this, engineers use radiation-hardened (or “rad-hard”) chips, which are designed to keep working even in space’s tough environment.
Now, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, working with Sandia National Laboratories, have created a new type of rad-hard chip that’s not only more resistant to radiation, but also smaller and more efficient than current designs.
The innovation focuses on flip-flops, or FFs, one of the most common building blocks inside a chip.
FFs store bits of data and are particularly vulnerable to radiation. Most chips in space today use larger FF designs that take up a lot of space. But the Carnegie Mellon team managed to shrink the size of these components without sacrificing protection against radiation.
“Since FFs are everywhere in a chip, reducing their size has a big impact,” said Ken Mai, a lead researcher on the project and a systems scientist in the university’s electrical and computer engineering department.
“Smaller chips cost less to make, use less energy, and work faster—huge benefits for space missions where every gram and watt matters.”
Their new design is clever in its simplicity. Instead of using the usual method, which creates three separate copies of each FF to prevent errors (a method called triple modular redundancy), their design reuses parts of a single FF in a unique arrangement.
This gives the same—or even better—radiation protection without taking up as much space.
Although the individual pieces of the new FF aren’t exclusive to Carnegie Mellon, the way the team combined them is their own invention. Their breakthrough was recognized with a Best Paper Award at the Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE) Conference in Lyon, France.
Next, the researchers are building complete system-on-a-chip prototypes using this technology. They plan to test the chips on a small satellite, called a cubesat, that will launch into space in 2026 as part of a student-led spacecraft design course at Carnegie Mellon.
This advance could help make future space electronics more compact, affordable, and reliable—crucial qualities for the growing number of space missions on the horizon.
