High-Temperature Instrumentation for the Advancement of Hypersonic Engine Development

Robust instrumentation for advanced engine development in both the near and long term is required to maintain the air superiority of the United States Air Force. This robust instrumentation must withstand the high-temperature and vibration environments present not only in existing high-speed propulsion systems but also future propulsion systems that will operate in hypersonic envelopes. Instrumentation with this capability will be achieved through application of high-temperature Smart Nodes, modules capable of operating in this extreme environment regime (300 °C) with integrated processing built upon a platform of ceramic packaging technologies and silicon-on-insulator and silicon carbide semiconductors. The processing capability is completed with sensors and sensor nodes that operate at even higher temperatures (600 °C). The test platform will be populated with wide-bandgap integrated circuits developed by Ozark IC and partners. This technology will be used to design a high-temperature modular data acquisition smart node for a distributed sensor network, enabling system monitoring for characterization performance.