Electronics packaging technology has moved on a bit since that classic line about ‘plastics’ was delivered in The Graduate movie, 50 years ago. Plastic packages are now capable of operating comfortably at 200˚C and there is a now a willingness from some engineers to fly them in space.
When the VA10820 rad-hard ARM Cortex-M0 microcontroller was launched early in 2016, it was available in a ceramic package or in die form. Hermetic ceramic packaging is the conventional trusted solution for space applications.
VORAGO Technologies packaged some VA10820 microcontrollers in a plastic package in order to keep the retail price of the REB1-VA10820 development kit as low as possible. It was a bit of a surprise to us that so many engineers came back to us with the feedback that they wanted to use the plastic version that they saw on the development kit in production.
Responding to this demand, we’re now happy to announce that there is now a plastic version of the VA10820 128 QFP available for sale.
Plastic packages are lower cost because the raw material cost is lower than ceramic, manufacturing a plastic package is simpler and benefits are gained from the scale economies of high production. In addition, there are some other benefits of plastic packages over ceramic.Plastic packages are lighter weight than ceramic, by approximately a third. They are also less brittle.
The VORAGO plastic package is one of the few in the industry that has been tested and qualified to operate from -55˚C to 200˚C.
If you are interested in graduating to rad-hard microcontrollers in cost-effective plastic packages, take a look at the VA10820-PQ128F0PCA.