Development of a High-temperature (>1200 °C) Microgravity Assisted Crystal Growth Furnace for In-Space Manufacturing of Low Defect Wide Bandgap Semiconductors

Rapidly evolving semiconductor-based technology is outstripping the physical limits of the conventional silicon semiconductors that are the basis of all modern technology. Wide bandgap semiconductors (WBGS) are necessary to address major advances in communication, aerospace, and defense. However, low-defect single crystal WBGS are extremely difficult and costly to grow today; some of the greatest technical challenges in their growth are rooted in the effects of Earth’s gravity. To address issues like container interactions, buoyancy, and sedimentation, crystal growth must leave Earth. Astral Materials will revolutionize semiconductor crystal growth by removing gravity altogether, thereby addressing major challenges faced by terrestrial crystal growers. By growing advanced semiconductor substrates of a larger size, with significantly improved dopant distribution and orders-of-magnitude fewer defects, Astral Materials will be able to provide commercial and defense markets with the veritable holy grail for emerging semiconductor applications. These substrates will allow devices to operate at higher voltages, frequencies, and temperatures, and with greatly improved efficiency they will significantly reduce the packaging requirements compared to traditional silicon-based substrates. The goal of Astral Materials, and by extension of this proposal, is a lucrative discovery in the emerging field of microgravity materials manufacturing. Microgravity assisted semiconductor crystal growth is the first commercial step towards both a sustainable space economy and the emerging field of microgravity materials science. This award will support the development of a microgravity assisted high-temperature (>1200 °C) furnace capable of low-power operation (≤ 1 kW) of a volume and mass that can be accommodated on existing LEO infrastructure.

Many WBGS are especially useful for harsh in-space applications due to their rad-hard properties and ability to operate within a wide range of temperatures. The goal of Astral Materials is to grow WBGS with orders-of-magnitude fewer defects than possible on Earth, which will lead to more energy efficient, higher performance devices with improved reliability to make significantly better devices for spacefaring hardware. The rapidly growing utilization of WBGS is ubiquitous across technologies ranging across electric vehicles, communications, medical devices, and defense among others. Devices based on WBGS can operate at higher frequencies, at higher power, and can be packaged smaller thanks to improved heat distribution. The goal of Astral Materials is to provide a lucrative opportunity for the growing commercial space sector to serve the massive, global semiconductor industry with a product that can only be made in microgravity.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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