Surviving Space: Radiation, Bit Flips, and Naked Silicon. An interview with Matthew Gill
Interviews and news from the world of Open Source Silicon, ASICs and Semiconductors.
January 19, 2026835h 31mFull
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Show Notes
A deep dive into radiation, bit flips, orbital hot spots, and what it really takes for silicon to survive in low Earth orbit.
Follow Matthew Gill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/42-matthew-gill/
00:00 Intro
01:30 Matthew is a nuclear engineer
02:26 How do you test without going to orbit?
07:01 How does a bit flip happen?
09:00 What does a hardened PDK and tooling look like?
11:31 ESD testing
14:15 RP2040 on HUNITY
19:39 What is LEO like?
23:35 Building a sensor to measure these effects
25:22 Open source silicon intersecting with space
30:26 What kind of shielding could we add?
33:54 Van Allen belts
39:18 Error detection
41:28 Wafer variability
44:05 Managing thermals
49:44 Thanks