System-on-Foil Electronics for Radiation Tolerant Space Computing

Lux Semiconductors is developing thin and conformal electronics based on its System-on-FoilTM platform for a wide range of miniaturized and durable microelectronics. In this proposed Phase I, Lux will direct the development of its System-on-Foil platform for the manufacture of lightweight, radiation tolerant microelectronics. With the emergence of proliferated low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations and the increasing interest to further occupy geostationary orbit (GEO) and beyond, there is a growing need to enable complete satellite autonomy. Creating autonomy, however, will require a massive increase in on-board processing given the limitation in communications to ground stations. Due to the harsh radiation environment of space, current space electronics often require boxy metal enclosures that are prohibitively large, heavy, and expensive to be deployed pervasively. These bottlenecks can be mitigated by reducing the size of the electronics, thereby reducing the size, weight, and expense of the metal enclosure. To effectuate this change, Lux proposes a radical departure from the relatively large and rigid printed circuit board (PCB) assemblies in use today. Instead, Lux has developed a flexible, high density interconnect system to integrate semiconductor chips into a single, standalone semiconductor package. This System-on-Foil package offers a replacement option to PCBs, which has the potential to miniaturize equivalent electronics by up to 10X. In this proposed Phase I, Lux will seek to identify a target use case to quantify its expected advantages against PCBs in both size and weight. Lux will also work with Air Force stakeholders to procure initial device requirements to design manufacturing plans for its System-on-Foil space electronics solution in a Phase II effort.