Date: Dec 15, 2009 Author: L. Scott Tillett Source: MDA (
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by L. Scott Tillett/stillett@nttc.edu
A company with a history of research funding from MDA is steadily building a business developing nuclear event detectors, radiation-hardened analog-to-digital converters, and customized mixed signal integrated circuits—a portfolio of technologies that could prove enabling in areas such as handheld devices, sensing and imaging, operating devices off of scavenged energy sources, and other applications in which ultra low power consumption is important.
This image shows a May 2009 launch of an MDA Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) satellite. Some of Nu-Trek's technology is based on components developed to support the STSS program.
Work by the company, Nu-Trek (San Diego, CA), involves highly customized components known as application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Building off know-how from its ASIC work, the company has developed a flagship product called a Monolithic Nuclear Event Detector (NED)—an offering that Nu-Trek leaders say takes up one-fifteenth the volume of competing devices while requiring only one-third the power.
The Monolithic NED, which measures 0.225 x 0.225 x 0.06 inches, is designed for use in protecting electronics and sensors on missile interceptors. Electronics that continue to operate while flying through a nuclear "event" can be corrupted or can be permanently disabled. Nu-Trek's NED allows them to shut down and then be safely restarted once the coast is clear. In this process, known as circumvention and recovery, the NED can detect the event and then send a signal to another Nu-Trek-developed device (a circumvention clamp) that removes the power from sensitive electronics.
The Monolithic NED, whose development was funded through an MDA Phase II SBIR contract, already has been inserted into a radiation hardened inertial measurement unit, and, according to Nu-Trek, the NED is being evaluated for insertion into future kill vehicles for the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS).
Beyond missile defense, the detector could be used to protect satellite components from nuclear-related damage, and the NED could be incorporated into ground-based systems—electronics for weapons systems, for example—that would need to operate after a nuclear event.
In addition to the NED, Nu-Trek is developing a 14-bit analog-to-digital converter that can operate on one-tenth the power required by similar converters on the market today. Nu-Trek's analog-to-digital converter is based on technology developed to support MDA's Space Tracking and Surveillance System program, which seeks to put sensors in space as part of the BMDS.
Miriam Rauch, CEO of Nu-Trek, said that the company's ultra low power analog-to-digital converter technology is especially appropriate for systems involving readout integrated circuits, in which data from a detector array (such as a focal plane array) is sent to other electronic components.
Medical imaging systems and handheld devices are potential application areas in the commercial world, Rauch said.
Nu-Trek, founded in 2001, now employs ten people. The company continues to seek partners and distributors for application areas that require mixed signal design expertise—especially in the realm of ASIC design.
