← Back to NASA Technology Projects

Mechanically Flexible Active Silicon Chips and Systems, Phase I

Completed

Description

Using innovative chip thinning technology married with recently available packaging technology, this effort will produce Mechanically Flexible Multifunctional Active Silicon chips. By thinning pre-fabricated silicon chips down to the order of microns, bonding and encapsulating them in flexible polyimide materials; the resulting crystalline silicon chip can be flexed like a piece of paper where all the components ? the wiring, passives, and active silicon chips ? can be rolled, bent, and folded to virtually any shape and size.A Mechanically Flexible Active Silicon System is the next generation of MCM-D technology. Evolving from Chip-on-Flex to Chip-IN-Flex where the active silicon chips are themselves mechanically flexible, this technology will enable countless space, mobile, sensing, and advanced architecture systems for NASA.

Details

Technology areaFlight Computing and Avionics > Avionics Component Technologies > Electronic Packaging and Implementations
ProgramSmall Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer (SBIR/STTR)
Lead organizationGoddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Start date2004-01-16
End date2004-07-19

Project contacts

Listed on TechPort itself — the most direct way to ask about this specific project.

How to get involved

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.