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Space-Qualified Versions of SAM MCUs Roll

Microchip Technology has announced the qualification of its SAMRH71 Arm-based microprocessor (MPU) and the availability of the SAMRH707 microcontroller (MCU), both implementing Arm Cortex-M7 SoC radiation-hardened technology. The company’s SAMRH71 and SAMRH707 devices were developed with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, to further research and program initiatives.

Relying on the standard Arm Cortex-M7 architecture and the same peripherals as automotive and industrial processors, the SAMRH71 and SAMRH707 provide system development cost and schedule optimization by leveraging standard software and hardware tools from the consumer devices.

The SAMRH71, a radiation-hardened variant of Microchip’s COTS automotive SoC technology, provides a combination of space connectivity interfaces along with high-performance architecture with more than 200 Dhrystone MIPS (DMIPS). Designed for high-level radiation performance, extreme temperatures and high reliability, the SAMRH71’s Arm Cortex-M7 core is coupled with high-bandwidth communication interfaces such as SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553, CAN FD and Ethernet with IEEE 1588 Generalized Precision Time Protocol (gPTP) capabilities. The device is fully ESCC qualified with support from CNES and compliant with MIL standard Class V and Q high-reliability grades, allowing systems to meet strict compliance requirements, says Microchip.

Extending the portfolio of Microchip’s radiation-hardened Arm Cortex-M7-based MCUs, the SAMRH707 device provides analog functions on top of a >100 DMIPS processor unit with Digital Signal Processing (DSP) capabilities, combined with space connectivity interfaces in a small footprint designed for high-level radiation performance, extreme temperatures and high reliability. The SAMRH707 enables a high level of integration embedding Static SRAM and flash memory, high-bandwidth communication interfaces including SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553 and CAN FD, along with analog functions such as a 12-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) and Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC).

To speed system design, developers can use the SAMRH71F20-EK and SAMRH707F18-EK evaluation boards. Microchip’s full ecosystem supports its SAMRH707 and SAMRH71 space processors and includes MPLABÒ Harmony tools suite and third-party software services for space applications. Both Microchip devices are supported by the company’s Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for developing, debugging and software libraries. The devices are supported in MPLAB Harmony version 3.0.

The SAMRH71 ceramic package device is available in volume production quantities with QMLQ (SAMRH71F20C-7GB-MQ) and QMLV (SAMRH71F20C-7GB-SV) equivalent qualification levels. For applications requiring high volumes and cost-optimized structures, the SAMRH71 is available for printed circuit board design or evaluation in Ball Grid Array (BGA) plastic packaging. The SAMRH707 in a CQFP164 ceramic package is sampling today (SAMRH707F18A-DRB-E).

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Microchip Technology | www.microchip.com

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Space-Qualified Versions of SAM MCUs Roll

by Circuit Cellar Staff time to read: 2 min