65673 Reliability prognostic monitors, needed in nuclear physics electronic systems, must be self-contained predictors of an impending circuit/system failure at the device/sub-circuit level. This project will develop circuits capable of functioning as prognostic cells for dynamic AC oxide… More

"Built In Self Test (BIST) must be used to mitigate the continuous increase in complexity in systems on a chip (SOC). BIST can, however, affect the way in which a circuit responds to a radiation, including the power drain through photocurrents. BIST cantherefore influence the "rail-span collapse"… More

Currently available RF/Mixed Signal design kits and tools do not provide the necessary precision to accurately predict integrated circuit performance when exposed to total ionization dose (TID), single event effects (SEE) and prompt dose (PD) environments.Specifically, the parametric variation of… More

This proposal provides an easily-adopted method of adding built-in self test (BIST) and prognostics to PWM-type switching power supplies.Switch mode power supplies (SMPS) provide significant advantages to users in terms of conversion efficiency, weight, and size. According to Industry Analysts,… More

The best currently available fast Analog to Digital Converters cannot achieve power consumption below 300 mW/Ms/bit. Ridgetop proposes to design a pipeline architecture ADC that will break this barrier using the revolutionary 0.25 mm FLEXFET device.Because this device is built on Silicon On… More

Designing strategic electrical systems to operate reliably in harsh radiation environments typically requires an extensive amount of circuit modeling at the gate level. In order to simulate the system response to radiation damage accurately, models for thetransistors used in circuit simulation must… More

The continuous increase in integrated circuit (IC) scaling and complexity means that there are less output pins per transistor on the chip, resulting in reduced observability, controllability and insufficient test coverage. External testing of the IC has therefore become complex, time intensive and… More

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project provides a unique and robust in-situ sensor for detection and control of impurities in microstructures and porous layers associated with manufacturing of semiconductor, MEMS and emerging nano devices. Use of impedance as a measure of… More

Providing effective Prognostics/Health Maintenance (PHM) capabilities is a key objective for the JSF. A key part of PHM includes electronic prognostics, where an impending failure in an electronic module can be predicted before it occurs and thus is very useful for such critical systems. Power… More

The identification and development of sensors for monitoring environmental conditions, for detecting incipient faults, and for detecting precursor-to-failure trigger points is one aspect of Prognostic Health Management (PHM) for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Another important aspect is to… More

Ridgetop will work with Raytheon to apply Electronic Prognostics to critical electronic systems in advanced missile systems. The focus will be on latent defects that escape conventional functional test suites. This investigation involves identification of critical components from failure rate… More

Ridgetop believes the technological advances in Prognostics and Built-in Self Test (BIST) can play a pivotal role in enabling the host electronic control unit (ECU) and its subsystems to assess their own viability and make on-the-fly corrections as required, or a transfer to redundant units. For… More

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project provides a unique and robust in-situ sensor for detection and control of impurities in microstructures and porous layers associated with manufacturing of semiconductor, MEMS, and emerging nanodevices. Use of impedance as a measure of… More

Solder-joint damage is accumulative and results in increased crack growth rate and in increased frequency of high-resistance spikes. These faults typically manifest themselves as intermittent, hard-to-diagnose faults in which incorrect FPGA output signals occur. These intermittent faults increase… More

All electronic systems are prone to wear-out and eventual failure and this has direct implications for Vehicle Health Management for NASA with its long space missions. The accurate prediction of an impending failure can provide significant savings in functionality and mission success.[1] Accurate… More

The proposed ePHM module for MOSFETs utilizes a group of prognostic cells and devices to monitor the parametric shift of critical MOS parameters and gain insight into way that the physical mechanisms responsible for degradation and aging impact the progression of fault to failure and remaining… More

Avionics suppliers are necessarily turning to Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) electronic components and subsystems for three main reasons: the lack of military qualified parts, to take advantage of the high-performance components available in the COTS market, and according to Ralph Lachenmaier, the… More

Together with its supporting partner, Raytheon Missile Systems, the objective of this SBIR proposal is to design a high resolution, high speed 100 MSPS, 14 bit, radiation-hardened Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) for critical KEI and Missile applications. This is considered an aggressive goal,… More

Ridgetop will create algorithms and models for Prognostics/Health Management (PHM) on radio-frequency (RF) components used in Communication, Navigation, and Intelligence (CNI) systems. A key focus of this work is adaptation of proven time-domain statistic analysis techniques - Multivariate State… More

Ridgetop will provide innovative means of more accurately assessing state-of-health and providing trending analysis for the fault-to-failure progression of critical IT network components and services, based on more fully exploiting the existing and planned data sources. The approach makes use of… More

A high-speed, highly-sensitive, analog-to-digital (ADC) data converter, which is radiation-hardened to minimize the transistor leakage problems that cause linearity errors, is needed for Nuclear Physics experiments. The ADC component plays a key role in measurement accuracy; therefore, its… More

Shrinking semiconductor process geometries (130 nm and below) are increasingly subject to performance, lifetime, and reliability-limiting effects that can cause hard-to-diagnose intermittent failures. One of the most serious emerging reliability problems is called Negative Bias Temperature… More

This SBIR is to design, develop, fabricate and package a suite of Integrated Circuit (IC) sensors as an IC chip. The chip, referred to as IC Prognostics chip, will contain four groups of sensors to sense damage to the "canary" devices on the IC chip: a damaged canary indicates a high probability… More

This proposal addresses the need for a real-time Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) system to identify anomalous states in digital electronic systems used in spaceflight applications and recommend corrective actions. We identify promising host platforms for implementation of PHM and consider… More

With its SBIR Partners Boeing, University of Tennessee and HRL Laboratories, Ridgetop develops novel techniques to determine system State-of-Health, and predicting failures in Digital Processors before they occur, and develop improved Remaining Useful Life (RUL) predictions. This will employ the use… More

Ridgetop's role is to develop electronic prognostics for sensing power systems in support of NASA/Ames ADAPT testbed. The prognostic enabled power systems from Ridgetop are to be integrated into NASA's Advanced Diagnostics and Prognostics Testbed (ADAPT) and later used in the Crew Exploration… More

Building on the successful research performed in Phase I of this SBIR, Ridgetop will develop cost-saving technologies to assess and improve the state-of-health of IT network components and services. The approach taken involves a four-step process: (1) regularly query network hardware and software… More

Particle accelerators require detector designs that possess high dynamic range and wide bandwidths, and are hardened to withstand radiation effects during physics experiments. A critical component in the detector is the analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which must have excellent linearity to… More

Nuclear Physics (NP) experiments require the installation and maintenance of a large number of very sensitive detectors that are arranged along the beam line. Thousands of these detectors must function well in order to capture low-level signals and assure the success of the experiments. The detector… More

The ability to measure and characterize critical circuit parameters is a necessary requirement to developing reliable microelectronics for military applications. An industry-first capability is provided: a set of radiation-hardened by design (RHBD) test structures to allow design engineers to… More

Expert analysis tools that rapidly and accurately evaluate the reliability of electronics modules, such as printed circuit board assemblies (PCBA) for component health, performance and situational self awareness, are critically important to mission effectiveness of DoD systems. To accomplish this,… More

NASA has expressed a requirement for advanced Smart Sensors to support new systems for harsh environments. Power systems are an integral component of virtually any electronic or electromechanical system and thus are an excellent application for non-intrusive power system state-of-health and… More

Energy storage devices, including fuel cells, are needed to enable future robotic and human exploration missions. Historically, the reliability of the fuel cells has been problematic, including the scrubbed launch of the Atlantis Space Shuttle in September, 2006, and Endeavor in August, 1995. A 2007… More

Ridgetop Group, Inc. is proposing a Phase I Feasibility and Merit study as follows: 1. Conduct a Feasibility study on whether Heterojunction BiPolar Junction Transistor-based (HBT-based) structures can be designed for use as follows: (1) HBT-based Die Level Process Monitor (DLPM) structure to… More

In order to help the Army add prognostic coverage to its IAMD platform, Ridgetop will apply its proven prognostic technologies to the IAMD systems. Given our experience with integrating prognostics into other electronic systems, Ridgetop will specifically investigate adding prognostics to the… More

Ridgetop Group, Inc. will develop a unique and innovative capacitance-only switching power converter with efficiencies over 99%. Power efficiency and battery life are vital concerns for the modern war-fighters who rely on portable electronic technology to enhance their effectiveness. Batteries used… More

In response to NASA SBIR topic X1.04, Ridgetop Group will extend and adapt RingDown: an innovative system for the non-invasive prognostic monitoring of the health of electromechanical actuators and related power systems. This comprehensive solution provides both advanced hardware sensors to monitor… More

Under this SBIR program, Ridgetop will introduce the first low-cost, low-power, and lightweight data monitoring solution for rotorcraft diagnostics. The solution is an integrated MEMS-based sensors fabricated by a MEMS-first CMOS process methodology. The device measures temperature, shock, and… More

Ridgetop Group will leverage its proven Electromechanical Actuator (EMA) prognostics methodology to develop an advanced model-based actuator prognostic reasoner (MAPR). Ridgetop's concept is a self-contained, embedded prognostic reasoner with a passive connection to common avionic data busses. By… More

Ridgetop Group will design a high-speed, low-power silicon germanium (SiGe)-based, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to be a key element for digital beam forming (DBF) systems that are used in NASA's future radar missions. The ADC will employ a novel combination of time interleaving, high-speed… More

Ridgetop Group will design a rad-hard Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) for spacecraft power management that is functional over a temperature range of -230 to +130 oC. This ASIC is intended to work in conjunction with a Fuel Cell power system and battery back-up to provide uninterrupted… More

Ridgetop will develop an advanced reasoning-based troubleshooting algorithm to identify the failed components in complex mechanical/electrical systems. The reasoning-based algorithm will be used in an Autonomic Reasoning-based Troubleshooting (ART) management system which will provide support for… More

Ridgetop Group will develop an improved method of supporting condition-based maintenance through the analysis of historical data, and direct but non-intrusive physics-of-failure measurements. The measurements apply a unique Pseudo-Random Noise (PRN) method and autocorrelation approach to detect… More

This SBIR Phase II program proposal will apply an innovative method of prognostic-enabling an electronic board in a modular countermeasures computer (MCC) for an Air Force Electronic Warfare (EW) system. The ability to detect impending failures in complex electronics systems supports… More

Ridgetop Group will design an innovative portable and user-programmable reliability evaluation system for nanotechnology CMOS PROcesses (PROChek) for use in satellite and other critical missions. In Phase I, Ridgetop Group demonstrated the feasibility through rigorous analysis and simulations, and… More

Ridgetop Group will develop a non-destructive, ruggedized toolset consisting of a personal hand-held device that uses an innovative, compact Power Draw Correlation Technique to detect damage to multi-conductor Submersible High Data Rate (SubHDR) cables. The toolset also consists of an innovative… More

Ridgetop's innovative solution will improve the dependability and reliability of the battery system through monitoring and balancing the state-of-charge of the individual cells within the battery pack. This innovation will significantly reduce maintenance and unnecessary battery pack replacement… More

This SBIR Phase I proposal requests support for Ridgetop Group, Inc. to demonstrate the feasibility of producing a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensor with a CMOS embedded technology. This proposal responds to Navy Topic N092-100, "Analysis of Prognostic Sensor Technologies for MEMS… More

Under this SBIR program, Ridgetop Group will introduce the first single-chip, low-cost, low-power, and lightweight data monitoring solution for applications on rotating machinery. To develop this innovative miniature data collection platform, Ridgetop proposes to:  Provide a novel data… More

An innovative Reliability-Prediction System funded by DOE for Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Cell Inverters will yield important benefits to the Public. The power conditioning module in a PV system, the inverter, has been identified as the component with the lowest reliability in many studies. This SBIR… More

Ridgetop developed an innovative, model-driven anomaly diagnostic and fault characterization system for electromechanical actuator (EMA) systems to mitigate catastrophic failures.Ridgetop developed a MIL-STD-1553 bus monitor and a MIL-STD-1553 bus controller that simulates the aircraft data bus,… More

Ridgetop's innovation addresses the need for improved capabilities for detecting wear in the drive gears inside helicopter gearboxes. Rotorcraft drive trains must withstand enormous pressure while operating continuously in extreme temperature and vibration environments. Captive components, such… More

In Phase 1, Ridgetop Group designed a high-speed, yet low-power silicon germanium (SiGe)-based, analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to be a key element for digital beam forming (DBF) systems that will be used in NASA's future radar applications. The ADC will employ a novel combination of time… More

Ridgetop Group developed a top-level design of a rad-hard application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for spacecraft power management that is functional over a temperature range of -180 to +130<SUP>o</SUP>C. This ASIC is intended to work in conjunction with a fuel cell power system… More

Ridgetop will demonstrate the feasibility of developing a radiation-hardened analog-to-digital converter (ADC) suitable for the Jupiter Europa Orbiter mission. This proposal responds to topic S1.09, In-Situ Sensors and Sensor Systems for Planetary Science.With this innovation, the ADC will be… More

Ridgetop will develop a superior method for testing and qualifying columnar type of grid arrays such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) packaged in column grid array (CGA) and ceramic column grid array (CCGA) packages using any type of manufacturing process.The proposed innovation is an… More

In response to Department of Energy SBIR topic 61a, Ridgetop Group will develop an adjustable sampling rate, high performance analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that is tolerant to very high levels of radiation. The significance of this innovation is that the ADC is designed to combine high… More

In this DOE SBIR Phase I program, Ridgetop Group will design a programmable, high resolution (12/14 bits), high speed (500 MS/s to 2 GS/S), analog-to-digital data converter (ADC) for use in particle accelerator instrumentation applications. The significance of this innovation is that high speed,… More

Ridgetop Group will develop a novel, ultra high-resolution, radiation-hardened analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for applications in servo control systems in satellites. The key performance attributes, including integral calibration circuitry, resolution of 18… More

ABSTRACT: Ridgetop Group will design a radiation-hardened, high speed (2 GS/S) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with high-bit precision for use in low bit error rate (BER) Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) demodulator applications. Due to its high linearity and dynamic range, the ADC block can… More

ABSTRACT: An innovative electrical power system (EPS) Robustness design tool will be created for calculating system-level Robustness in aircraft. The design employs flowgraph models for components at different levels of hierarchy including power sources, electronic circuit breakers, and… More

Ridgetop"s innovation will improve upon a new class of power converters that has a demonstrated efficiency up to 99%. This class of power converter, called switched-capacitor (SC or switched-cap) DC-DC converters, serves applications below 200 mA of current, with typical output voltages of 6 V… More

Ridgetop Group will develop a 3X improvement in sampling resolution over current state-of-the art analog-to-digital converter (ADC) technology to support reconfigurable/reprogrammable communication systems. The significance of this innovation lies in the time-interleaved pipeline ADC, based on the… More

Particle detectors for nuclear physics and high energy physics experiments require high performance, high sensitivity digitizers for read-out electronics. Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are used in such applications but limit experimental results because of a restrictive combination of speed,… More

A critical aspect in Particle Accelerator Instrumentation is the precise, real-time control of the high- energy particle beams used to create the conditions required for sub-atomic physics experiments. The accelerator instrumentation systems require digital control and feedback with extremely high… More

Ridgetop Group will develop a low-cost reliability and radiation effects characterization tool for state-of-the art silicon-germanium (SiGe) fabrication processes. The significance of this innovation is that SiGe bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) integrated circuits (ICs) have… More

ABSTRACT: Ridgetop Group, Inc. will design and develop a prototype of an electronic warfare (EW)"Expert Troubleshooting and Repair System"that has the following characteristics: (1) troubleshooting support that presents a prioritized list of methods; (2) a list of test-dependent… More

ABSTRACT: Ridgetop will develop an innovative Robustness Assessment for Design (RAD) tool for aircraft electrical power systems (EPS) to meet system safety, reliability, maintainability, and energy optimization requirements in each design stage by calculating system-level robustness. The design… More

ABSTRACT: In Phase II, Ridgetop Group will develop a high-performance radiation-hardened ADC suitable for use in satellite communication (SATCOM) systems where radiation exposure would otherwise degrade performance. This proposal responds to Air Force topic AF103-092, with the objective of… More