Ridgetop specializes in the development of prognostic methods that are used to improve the reliability of deployed systems by analyzing components that have high failure rates and critical impact on performance.
Detectors, or sensors, monitor these systems and help isolate failure precursors that indicate when the high-failure rate components are degrading toward failure. By knowing the progression of failure dynamics for a monitored device, an accurate prediction of remaining useful life (RUL) can be made and an appropriate evidence-based maintenance action, such as removing and replacing the device, can be initiated to reduce the cost of unscheduled maintenance.These sensors form an important part of the various prognostic and health management (PHM) product lines that comprise Sentinel Suite.
Ridgetop has developed customized sensor technologies that allow to collect data and monitor systems for several applications:
- RotoSense™, part of the Sentinel Motion product line
- SMRT Probe™, part of the Sentinel Power product line
- SJ BIST™ and TSV BIST™, part of the Sentinel Interconnect product line
RotoSense
SMRT Probe 4000
SJ BIST Demonstration and Evaluation Kit
Ridgetop’s prognostic tools such as ARULE work not only with Ridgetop’s sensors but with other off-the-shelf or customized sensors as well. Generally a data conditioning software module is required to prepare the sensor data for processing by ARULE.
Sentinel IT™, another product line in Sentinel Suite family, manages networks of prognostic-enabled nodes.
For more information, please contact us.
Featured Articles
- Wireless Sensors Pinpoint Rotorcraft Troubles (Article in NASA Spinoff Magazine)
Ridgetop is certified as category 1A under the Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA) as part of the Trusted Supplier Program. Ridgetop has history of designing analog and mixed signal ICs for demanding applications in space satellites that are subjected to extreme temperatures and radiation. Our designs have utilized bulk CMOS, CMOS-SOI, and SiGe at process geometries down to 28 nm channel lengths. Radiation hardness is also a concern, and Ridgetop has addressed those requirements as well. A recent Ridgetop design was delivered to ON Semiconductor for the U.S. Air Force STELLAR Star Tracker.
Under contract to NASA, Ridgetop designed an effective 3-axis wireless rotational sensor. The RotoSense™ sensor has been tested on fast-spinning pinion gears on helicopter gear boxes, and also rolling stock for railroad safety improvements.