Technical Papers

Below is a list of technical papers recently distributed by AET Engineers (click on the title to view the full paper)

Nuclear Event Protector

The objective of this research is to develop the technologies needed to allow innovative, high performance avionics systems, subsystems, and components the capability of successfully achieving early intercept missile defense in current and future interceptors in all hostile environments. The proposed solution to this problem is to provide subsystem-level detection of the special environment and circumvention of potential damage to commercial integrated circuits by the integration of multiple Nuclear Event Protector (NEP) chips into the system. When a special environment is detected, the NEP interrupts power to critical parts of the system. After the event concludes, the system will have survived the event and the NEP allows the power to be restored to the protected integrated circuits and the system can again function normally.

Present and future systems require special threat environment protection that has advanced characteristics from current parts. These new NEPs will have lower power and be capable of sinking much larger currents at faster speeds. This allows not only detection and circumvention, but an added layer of system protection previously unavailable. The development of these new Nuclear Event Protectors is the thrust of this research. In addition, these new NEPs will be fabricated with a modern small geometry process which is presently a trusted mainstream technology.

The EMP Guardian

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a large burst of electromagnetic radiation that can originate from a large sunspot directed at the earth or from a nuclear explosion in space. Both of these sources of radiation have the effect of generating a large electrical current (called an EMP current) in metal wires. The primary concern is potential destruction of electrical and electronic equipment that is connected to the wires in which the EMP current is generated.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new method of protecting some electrical and electronic equipment from the destruction of an EMP current. This method involves using a proprietary AET, Inc. device called the EMP Guardian. AET holds a United States Patent (No. 7,858,425 B2) on a fully monolithic version of this basic device. This report describes how the AET EMP Guardian can be utilized to protect electrical and electronic equipment from this destructive current.