Manufacturing Innovations for Next-gen Technologies in hypersonic vehicles (MINT)

Hypervelocity and hypersonic applications expose inertial measurement units (IMUs) to harsh acceleration, shock, and vibration environments. As vehicles become smarter and smaller, they present tighter constraints on size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C), while still requiring high-performance levels. New technology must reduce SWaP-C while operating through high-g shock and vibration environments that are significantly higher than the current state of the art while delivering the same performance.Much of the environmental shocks can be mitigated through system packaging. Still, the supply chain is slow and unresponsive to support accelerated testing and maturation of critical low-SWaP-C technologies. We propose to develop additive manufactured packaging as a method to accelerate testing and development of semiconductor electronics in hypervelocity and hypersonic environments.The proposed Phase II effort will prototype a hardened MEMS IMU for harsh environment applications, including the development of fabrication approaches. The Phase II effort will also characterize performance under the anticipated environmental conditions. Approved for Public Release | 25-MDA-12220 (23 Sep 25)