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Evaluation of High Temperature Microcontrollers and Memory Chips for Geothermal Applications

Wright, Andrew A.; Cashion, Avery T.

The latest high temperature (HT) microcontrollers and memory technology have been investigated for the purpose of enhancing downhole instrumentation capabilities at temperatures above 210°C. As part of the effort, five microcontrollers (Honeywell HT83C51, RelChip RC10001, Texas Instruments SM470R1B1M-HT, SM320F2812-HT, SM320F28335-HT) and one memory chip (RelChip RC2110836) have been evaluated to its rated temperature for a period of one month to determine life expectancy and performance. Pulse rate of the integrated circuit and internal memory scan were performed during testing by remotely located axillary components. This paper will describe challenges encountered in the operation and HT testing of these components. Long-term HT tests results show the variation in power consumption and packaging degradation. The work described in this paper improves downhole instrumentation by enabling greater sensor counts and improving data accuracy and transfer rates at temperatures between 210°C and 300°C.