Call for Innovative Defense-Related Dual-Purpose Manufacturing Technologies/Solutions with a Clear Air Force and Space Force Stakeholder Need.

Radiation hardened (Rad-hard) electronics are essential for applications where exposure to high levels of radiation is unavoidable, such as in space, nuclear power plants, and high-altitude aviation. These Rad-hard electronics ensure reliable performance in extreme environments, where conventional electronics would quickly fail. By resisting radiation-induced damage, rad-hard electronics play a crucial role in advancing space exploration, and military technology and dominance. The demand for Rad-hard electronics is increasing due to expanding space exploration, advancements in defense technology, the growing nuclear energy sector, and the increase in space-based threats to satellite security and neutralization, e.g., intentional disabling/destructive nuclear events in proximity of these satellites. To address these demands, InnoSys’ Solid State Vacuum Device (SSVD) transistors present a revolutionary solution offering radiation “insensitive” microelectronics for special and future mission requirements. The unique radiation resistance/insensitivity of SSVD vacuum transistors offer very high (possibly highest) level of radiation hardness. Together with their unique high temperature insensitive properties which allows both high temperature environment operations and uncooled electronic operation for higher power electronics, SSVD should be viewed as a disruptive technology as once fully commercialized, it could be widely adopted for radiation hardened electronics even at high radiation levels and could easily integrate into and with other radiation hardened electronics without radiation shielding or hardening requirements. The radiation insensitive property of SSVD technology, which uniquely combines advantages of both Solid-State Electronic Devices and Vacuum Electronic Devices, supports extreme high radiation, temperature, electromagnetic pulse (EMP) insensitivity. SSVDs display properties similar to semiconductor transistors, specifically, field effect transistors (FETs). As a result, these devices are referred to as SSVD vacuum transistors. Instead of transporting through semiconductor materials, the electrons in a SSVD transport in vacuum where there are no thermal carrier generation, no leakage current, no material degradation, no intrinsic electrical breakdown even at extreme high radiation levels or temperature or both. SSVD vacuum transistors also do not suffer from degradation, passivation and metallization failure, or lattice defect cracks, and dislocations that plague all material types of semiconductor transistors and devices. For this AFWERX SBIR, we propose to develop SSVD electronics manufacturing based on, advanced microfabrication techniques, additive manufacturing including 3D ceramic and metal printing coupled with additive batch/volume manufacturing, to be ideally suitable for our rad-hard/insensitive extreme temperature electronics, and similar to the PCB assembly and packaging widely used in the semiconductor industry.