Electronic Engineering Glossary Terms

Nationally recognized standard. A specification or standard issued with the intent to establish common technical requirements. Such standards are developed by or for a Government activity or by a non-Government organization (private sector association, organization, or technical society) which conducts professional standardization activities (plans, develops, establishes, or publicly coordinates standards, specifications, handbooks, or related documents) and is not organized for profit.

National Stock Number. [NSN] A number assigned to each item of supply, that is purchased, stocked or distributed within the Federal Government. Editor note: Only other government agencies can purchase parts from the national stock system, so the NSN only applies to government agencies and isn't used by commercial companies.

NATO Commercial and Governmental Entity. [NCAGE] CAGE Codes are used internationally as part of the NATO Codification System (NCS), where they are sometimes called NCAGE Codes. Foreign registrants must have a NCAGE. Foreign registrants in CCR must have a NATO CAGE Code (NCAGE) assigned. A NCAGE code can be obtained by contacting the National Codification Bureau of the country where the company is located. [Note this definition is not part of MIL-STD-100]. Editor note; see CAGE Code for companies located in the US.

Non-Government standard. A standardization document developed by a private sector association, organization or technical society which plans, develops, establishes or coordinates standards, specifications, handbooks or related documents.

Nuclear effects. In this context, nuclear effects include the effects on assemblies, subassemblies or parts due to nuclear-power sources, space radiation or nuclear-weapon produced environments.

Nuclear Hardness Critical Item. [HCI] A Nuclear HCI is an item of hardware or software that satisfies one or more of the following conditions:
a. Functionally required hardware (meaning hardware included in system design to satisfy any requirement other than nuclear hardening) whose response to the specified nuclear environments could cause degradation in system survivability unless additional provisions for hardness are included in the item specification, design, manufacture, item selection process, provisioning, configuration control, etc.
b. Functionality required hardware or software that inherently provides protection for the system or any of its elements against the specified nuclear environments, and which if modified, removed or replaced by an alternate design could cause a degradation in system survivability.
c. Hardness dedicated hardware or software included in the system solely to achieve system nuclear survivability requirements.
d. Hardware items (at the level of application) to which a Hardness Critical Process (HCP) is applied.
e. A subassembly or higher level of assembly which contains one or more HCIs. For example, the item was not designed for its nuclear weapon response but has the intrinsic capability to perform adequately in the specified nuclear environments. This definition includes items whose design is modified to provide for nuclear survivability of other items, but not to provide for their own survivability.

Nuclear Hardness Critical Process. [HCP] A Nuclear HCP is any fabrication, manufacturing, assembly, installation, maintenance and repair, or other process or procedure which implements a hardness design feature and satisfies system hardness requirements.

Editor note; Semiconductors, including ICs and transistors usually use the term Radiation hardness assurance (RHA). The definition of RHA is: That portion of performance verification testing that assures that parts meet the radiation response characteristics as specified in this specification and the specification sheet.

Radiation failures. A radiation failure is defined at the lowest radiation level when either any device parameter exceeds its specified post irradiation parameter limits or the device fails any functional test in accordance with stated test conditions [editor note; this definition is not part of MIL-STD-100].