News & Events
Intersil High Performance Devices Onboard Spirit and Opportunity Mars Rovers
-- Intersil produces
MILPITAS, CA, January 26, 2004 Intersil Corporation (NASDAQ: ISIL), a world leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog solutions, announced today that specially produced advanced semiconductor products it manufactures are incorporated in various electronic systems of the two Mars Exploration rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Intersil has been a long-time provider of many different types of semiconductor devices for space exploration since the beginning of space operations in the 1950s. For space-bound devices, Intersil uses special manufacturing processes that protect the devices from the increased radiation, temperature extremes, excessive vibration and near-vacuum environments associated with the launch and multi-year missions. Intersil is the industry leader in high-performance analog radiation-hardened semiconductors and has supplied such devices for other notable missions including Magellan, Galileo, Clementine, Stardust and Cassini.
We are proud and, of course, very excited to play a part with JPL in the success of the Mars Rovers missions, said Rick Furtney, Vice President and General Manager of Intersils High Performance Analog Products Group. The fine men and women of JPL are to be congratulated for such a magnificent accomplishment. Images transmitted back to earth from both Spirit and Opportunity are amazing in detail and clarity. Having our radiation-hardened space products onboard and playing a role in these truly historic events gives our team great satisfaction.
Outside of the Earths atmosphere, spacecraft encounter harsh extremes of radiation exposure and temperature variation. To ensure survival in these challenging space environments, Intersils space qualified ICs are designed and manufactured in strict accordance with standards controlled by the Defense Supply Center of Columbus (DSCC) for Space level devices, with individual device electrical specifications defined and controlled by DSCC drawings. Intersils compliant Space level devices are manufactured at its facilities in Palm Bay, Florida USA.
For almost 50 years, Intersils corporate lineage has applied unique design and process capabilities to produce space qualified integrated circuits capable of handling the temperature and radiation extremes of space and other harsh environments. Today, the demand for radiation-hardened devices is being largely driven by growth in satellite-based communications services for Internet access, global positioning, mobile telephony, digital television and space exploration. Intersil offers a complete portfolio of radiation-hardened ICs, including an extensive line of Star*Power radiation hardened power management products. The Star*Power IC family includes a growing selection of single-event hardened MOSFET drivers, pulse-width modulators, voltage regulators and references, and power supervisory circuits. Learn more about Intersils Space products at: http://www.intersil.com/military/. About Intersil
Intersil Corporation is a leader in the design and manufacture of high performance analog semiconductors. The company’s products address three of the industry’s fastest growing markets - flat panel displays, optical storage (CD and DVD recordable) and power management. Intersil products include power management devices for battery management, hot-swap and hot-plug controllers, linear regulators, supervisory ICs, switching DC-DC regulators and power MOSFET drivers; optical storage laser diode drivers; DSL line drivers; video and high performance operational amplifiers; data converters; interface ICs; analog switches and multiplexers; crosspoint switches; voice-over-IP devices; and ICs for military, space and rad-hard applications. For more information about Intersil or to find out how to become a member of our winning team, visit the company’s web site and career page at: www.intersil.com.
This release may include "forward looking statements" that are subject to risks and uncertainties. For information identifying economic, political, climatic, currency, regulatory, technological, competitive and some other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward looking statements, see Intersil’s Safe Harbor Forward Looking Statement disclaimer found at http://www.intersil.com/legal.asp, as well as Intersil’s SEC filings as updated from time to time, found at http://www.sec.gov. Star*Power is a trademark of Intersil Americas Inc.
All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
