Additive Cofired Ceramic Electronics for Space Systems (ACCESS) (ACCESS)

Reliability in extreme environments is a critical challenge to realizing part consolidation and rapid manufacturing of electronics and multi-material components in space vehicles. Meeting this challenge will greatly increase the performance, lifetime, and reliability of NASA exploration vehicles. Reducing existing tooling costs will ensure systems are commercially viable and thereby available for future NASA and government needs. Engeniusmicro (EGM) and University of Florida (UF) propose to develop additive manufacturing materials, tooling, and DFAM for multi-material electronics and sensor structures. The team will down-select commercially available additive materials based known past performance in similar environments and based on new simulations of expected performance. The team will develop additive manufacturing processes specific for down-selected materials in single- and multi-material test coupons. Coupons will be tested for relevant mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. Results of the material study will define process and design rules for future prototypes. The STTR will further develop EngeniusMicro’s hybrid additive manufacturing tooling and software for the new material characteristics. The hybrid tooling includes multi-material and multi-process additive manufacturing heads, milling spindle, surface treatment tools. The control software will integrate process and design rules into DFAM procedure to output unified machine codes and process flows. The system will be a compact, affordable system with 50 µm resolution. •Benefit: This project develops additive manufacturing (AM) for high-temperature co-fired ceramics (HTCC) with buried metallization and dielectric layers to enable scalable, rapid manufacturing for extreme-environment missions. •State of the Art and Key Performance Parameters: Tape-cast HTCC offers high-temperature reliability but requires long lead times and high fabrication costs. State-of-the-art commercial AM systems lack cofired buried layers and require capital investments exceeding $400k per system. Existing approaches limit materials, process flexibility, and scalability which restricts their suitability for high-temperature, high-reliability applications. •Performance Gains: 90% tooling cost reduction, 78% cost savings, 83% faster lead times, ≥95% sintered density, ±50µm accuracy, 1000 hours at 800°C. •NASA requires high-reliability, high-temperature electronics, but traditional HTCC is costly and existing AM solutions lack buried layer capability. This innovation delivers scalable, low-cost, high-performance AM HTCC, solving key manufacturing limitations for NASA’s mission

Additive manufacturing (AM) has significant economic and time-value benefits for low-production, specialized systems operating in austere environments. Prototyping and low-volume production typically falls below AM volume thresholds, where toolless, digital fabrication has reduced costs by 78% and lead times by 83% compared to traditional manufacturing (TM). Also, complex parts (e.g., embedded sensing and active structures) exceed TM complexity thresholds where specialized TM is costly or impossible. Volume and complexity economics combine for additional savings through part consolidation in normal use cases. But for NASA part consolidation reduces volume and weight for additional launch savings and capabilities. AM further benefits NASA development by accelerating prototyping to reduce costs and time through rapid iteration and testing of functional components. These benefits are particularly attractive in additive manufacturing of electronics (AME) because of system complexity, mixed materials, and assembly with low production volume. Engeniusmicro and University of Florida propose to study material feasibility, multi-material compatibility, and design for additive manufacturing (DFAM) tools to mature AME for extreme cold environments. Engeniusmicro is developing a compact, affordable, and easy-to-use multi-material printing capability that is capable of electronics material deposition and non-printing machining processes. The tool itself will meet small-business, university lab, research lab, and high-end consumer needs for reduced costs and rapid prototyping. The tooling capability can be affordably scaled into print farms to increase production volume. The software consolidates many design and machine preparation tasks into an intuitive interface with visibility and control into critical process decisions. As the hardware and software develop, the tool will become affordable to consumers with tooling prices on the order of existing high-end home systems. Commercial applications include on-demand custom packages for rapid delivery of semiconductor packaging. Our unique tools, automation, and processes for rapid multi-material printing of buried conductors, vias, and ceramics enable production of custom chip carriers a fraction of the cost and lead-time of traditional chip carriers.

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.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.