NASA has awarded two grants totaling nearly $245,000 to Ozark Integrated Circuits Inc., a technology firm affiliated with the University of Arkansas.
The company, which designs semiconductors at the Arkansas Research and Technology Park, will use the grants to design complex integrated circuits that can operate on the surface of Venus, where the temperature can reach 500 degrees Celsius – 932 degrees Fahrenheit.
The two silicon-carbide-based circuits could be incorporated into the overall design of the space agency’s proposed Venus Landsailing Rover, said Matt Francis, Ozark IC’s president and CEO.
The company will collaborate with electrical engineering students at the UA on one of the projects. It will also utilize the integrated circuit packaging expertise and facilities of the university’s High Density Electronics Research Center at the research park. In electronics manufacturing, circuit packaging is the final stage of semiconductor device fabrication.
“Silicon carbide is a semiconductor that is ideally suited for the extreme environments found on Venus,” Francis said. “We have many years of experience working with this semiconductor fabrication process, developing models and process-design kits specifically for this process.”
In the first NASA award Ozark IC will address the development of a reliable ultraviolet imager that is suited for planetary composition experiments and Earth observation in space. The imager will allow monitoring of ultraviolet signals in order to understand the environment on Venus as well as for ultraviolet astronomy by observing and analyzing other planets and stars.
“We will demonstrate the feasibility of creating these needed integrated circuits,” Francis said. “We will also generate a commercial feasibility analysis based on projections of the manufacturing costs for each of these integrated circuits.”
In the second award the company will address NASA’s need for a microcontroller to provide real-time programmability for the proposed mobile lander for Venus.
Alan Mantooth, professor of electrical engineering at the UA, will supervise student research on this project.