Cobham's MRAM chips to reach Mars soon

High-reliability aerospace component maker Cobham (formerly Aeroflex) says that its MRAM chips were used in the payload of the ExoMars program that will soon reach Mars (in October 2016).

ExoMars is a joint-endeavor between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). ExoMars 2016 is the first mission, that will consist of a Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module (EDM) known as Schiaparelli. The main objectives of this mission are to search for evidence of methane and other trace atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes on Mars.

Cobham’s MRAM are used by the Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery (NOMAD) instrument on the TGO. NOMAD is a spectrometer suite that will measure the spectrum of sunlight across a wide range of wavelengths, enabling the detection of components of the Martian atmosphere. Cobham says that its MRAM chips were chosen due to the low access time, data retention and footprint, as well as radiation performance. Five MRAMs have been integrated on an interface board on the instrument.

Cobham licensed Everspin‘s MRAM technology and released its first MRAM chips in 2012. Cobham offers 16Mbit and 64Mbit MRAM chips.