Lessons learned using COTS electronics for the International Space Station radiation environment

The mantra of Faster, Better, Cheaper has to a large degree been interpreted as using Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) components and/or circuit boards. One of the first space applications to actually use COTS in space along with radiation performance requirements was the EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to Space Station (EXPRESS) Rack program, for the International Space Station (ISS). In order to meet the performance, cost and schedule targets, military grade Versa Module Eurocard (VME) was selected as the baseline design for the main computer, the Rack Interface Controller (RIC). VME was chosen as the computer backplane because of the large variety of military grade boards available, which were designed to meet the military environmental specifications (thermal, shock, vibration, etc.). These boards also have a paper pedigree in regards to components. Since these boards exceeded most ISS environmental requirements, it was reasoned using COTS mil-grade VME boards, as opposed to designing custom boa...