Research Bits: June 15


NAND in space Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania State University built ferroelectric NAND flash memory chips that can withstand up to 30 times higher radiation levels compared to conventional NAND. “If you send traditional flash memory to space, the radiation interacting with flash memory’s trapped electric charge can easily corrupt the data,” said Asif... » read more

Data Centers In Space?


The merger of xAI and SpaceX, the efforts by some startups, and research by Google have raised the question of when there will be data centers in space. The big advantage of space is the plentiful availability of solar energy, in a sun-synchronous orbit. Fig. 1: A possible orbital data center of the future. Source: Wikipedia, Creative Commons. SpaceX’s impressive Starlink uses s... » read more

Optimize Digital Payloads With Radiation Hardened GaN


As the demand for greater communication bandwidth continues to grow, next-generation satellites must deliver higher data throughput for digital payloads. This shift to digital payloads requires engineers to reassess key design parameters, such as material needs, operational factors, and radiation robustness, to ensure optimal performance in their space power systems. Infineon HiRel’s new radi... » read more

Electronics Reliability In Space: Simulating Rad Hard Designs


Space is a harsh environment. There’s no breathable air, radiation levels are 15 times higher than on Earth, and the approximate temperature is 2.7 Kelvin (minus 270.45 degrees Celsius or minus 454.81 degrees Fahrenheit). Thankfully, Earth’s atmosphere does a great job protecting us from space’s intense climate. But because there is no atmosphere in space, there’s nothing to protect sat... » read more

Stakes Are High For Aerospace, Defense IC Designs


Chips destined for the skies or armed forces need extra everything. They require higher layers of abstraction to simulate all the moving parts in the field, high-reliability testing for harsh environments, in addition to system-level test. They also need radiation-hardening and ceramic materials for space, extra safety layers, and advanced security techniques. As in the automotive sector, th... » read more

Pioneering The Cosmos With Physical AI: Robots Are Humanity’s Key Partners


The stars have always fascinated us, sparking dreams of exploration and discovery. But now, as humanity steps further into the cosmos, a new hero takes center stage—physical AI. Robots, autonomous vehicles, and drones are transforming our ability to explore and settle other worlds, from navigating the alien terrain of Mars to constructing future bases on the Moon. These cutting-edge... » read more

FTIR On Earth, Mercury In Focus


On early hours on 19th October 2018 at Guiana Space Centre in Kourou in French Guiana an Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched the BepiColombo mission. It started its 7 years journey to Mercury. The joined mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was named in honor of Giuseppe “Bepi” Colombo, an Italian scientist who studied Mercury and fi... » read more

Understand The Physics Of Re-Entry Vehicles Using Numerical Modeling And Simulation


In the early years of space exploration, scientists and engineers dreamed of sending vehicles to Mars that could land on the planet's surface and explore its terrain. However, one of their biggest challenges was safely reentering the Martian atmosphere. Many early attempts at Mars missions failed because the vehicles either burned up during re-entry or crashed onto the surface. However, as tech... » read more

Stress tensor mesostructures for deterministic figuring of thin substrates


New research paper from MIT and University of Arizona, funded by NASA. Abstract "Accessing the immense value of freeform surfaces for mass-sensitive applications such as space optics or metaform optical components requires fabrication processes that are suited to figuring thin substrates. We present stress tensor mesostructures for precisely correcting figure errors, even after microstruc... » read more

RT Kintex UltraScale FPGAs For Ultra High Throughput And High Bandwidth Applications


Xilinx's UltraScale architecture extends FPGA capability for space applications, delivering a step-function increase in I/O and memory bandwidth, capacity, performance, and in-orbit re-configurability. For the first time, the RT Kintex UltraScale XQRKU060 FPGA enables the satellite industry to access ultra-high throughput on-board processing of hundreds of Gb/s. This capability allows spacecraf... » read more

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