Overview
- Georgia Tech researchers reported in Nano Letters that their ferroelectric NAND flash withstood radiation doses up to 1 million rads in tests run at Penn State.
- The design stores data as polarization in hafnium oxide rather than as trapped electric charge, which prevents radiation from corrupting bits.
- The measured tolerance is roughly 30 times higher than that of conventional NAND flash used in space systems today.
- The demonstrated dose range covers needs for low-Earth orbit, geostationary orbit, and deep-space missions, which increasingly rely on onboard AI to process data.
- Lance Fernandes fabricated the chips in Georgia Tech’s cleanroom, and the project drew support from SRC’s JUMP 2.0 SUPREME center, DARPA, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.