1 Introduction: TI Space-Grade Product Portfolio

TI’s space-grade product portfolio provides essential building blocks for FDIR implementation, including components for voltage, current, and temperature sensing, signal comparison, decision-making logic, communication, switching, and isolation. These devices help designers build systems that can autonomously recognize faults and take corrective action—without excessive design complexity.

Additionally, some of TI’s space-grade devices such as the TMS570LC4357-SEP incorporate design principles and diagnostics in compliance with functional safety standards such as ISO 26262. These principles can be effectively repurposed for the rigorous reliability demands of space applications.

TI supports multi-mission flexibility by offering space-grade components in two quality levels (shown in Figure 1-1):

• Rad-tolerant (-SEP): Designed for low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations, where cost efficiency and scale matter. These products are qualified to a minimum of 30krad total ionizing dose (TID) and 43MeV linear energy transfer (LET) for single event latch-up (SEL) immunity.
• Rad-hard (-SP): Designed for deep space, human spaceflight, GEO/MEO satellites, and other high-reliability missions. These parts follow stringent quality standards such as QML-V and QML-P. “-SP” offers radiation tolerance of TID 50- 300 krad and SEL immunity ≥ 60 MeV·cm²/mg.

Figure 1-1 TI Space Product Grades

Both product categories offer material and process controls to mitigate risks from packaging such as tin whiskers, bond wire fatigue, or outgassing. With pin-compatible options across quality levels and ready-to-use documentation, TI’s catalog-based approach reduces cost, risk, and time-to-launch. For engineers designing FDIR systems, space-grade components from TI provide a reliable foundation to enable mission success without compromise.

TI has a long history of releasing QML-V products and also offers plastic-packaged space products with the following benefits:

• Much smaller size and much easier to use since the pins are pre-formed and -trimmed.
• Pin-compatibility between rad tolerant (-SEP) and rad hard (QML-P/QML-Y) options enables high re-use of R&D efforts across mission profiles.
• Better performance due to shorter bond wires which reduces the so-called “package parasitics”.
• Better heat dissipation capabilities.

A very important characteristic of space-grade components is that they follow a single controlled baseline manufacturing flow, meaning there is only a single wafer fab, a single assembly & test facility and only a single material set allowed. This is very different from commercial manufacturing flows. For example, the automotive market requires IC-vendors to assure supply of high volumes at any given point in time. In response to that need, IC vendors typically establish a very flexible manufacturing flow where multiple fabs and assembly and test sites are qualified for a single device and can be leveraged to respond to sudden increase in demand very quickly. Further, for any products sold at high volumes there is a need to continuously work on yield and cost optimization. It can be expected that over time there is quite some change in radiation hardness from parts qualified or screened in the past and newly placed orders. There is a significant difference between simply screening commercial components for radiation and purposefully manufacturing space-grade devices. Accordingly, real flight heritage can typically only be earned for space-grade components. The long-term financial and technical benefits of using space-grade components grow exponentially with time.