The Advantages of Semiconductor Manufacturing in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for Terrestrial Use

Topic Matter Specialists (SMEs) in semiconductor and in-space manufacturing collaborated on a white paper that outlines how microgravity advantages the manufacturing of semiconductors and associated supplies. Earth’s gravitational forces pose substantial boundaries to fast, high-yield semiconductor manufacturing. Microgravity presents a path to beat these boundaries. There are additionally substantial sensible advantages to incorporating LEO-based manufacturing into the availability chain. The white paper argues that transitioning this trade into house is a path ahead to attaining NASA’s In House Manufacturing Purposes’ (InSPA) objectives. These objectives embrace strengthening U.S. technological management, enhancing nationwide safety, creating high-quality jobs, offering advantages to humanity, and enabling the event of a sturdy financial system in LEO.

The paper, “Semiconductor Manufacturing in Low Earth Orbit for Terrestrial Use,” may be discovered right here.

Extra data on NASA’s InSPA portfolio may be discovered at:

www.nasa.gov/inspa

Courtesy of NASA

Featured Picture: NASA astronaut and Expedition 65 Flight Engineer Megan McArthur works within the Microgravity Science Glovebox swapping samples for an experiment known as Solidification Utilizing a Baffle in Sealed Ampoules, or SUBSA. The physics investigation explores experimental strategies of crystallizing melts in microgravity and is anticipated to end in lowered fluid movement within the soften, main to raised distribution of subcomponents and the potential for improved expertise utilized in producing semiconductor crystals.