NASA Awards Alphacore Four Contracts for Radiation Hardened Microelectronics Innovation

January 10, 2025 -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded four contracts in 2024 to Alphacore to advance the development of cutting-edge microelectronics systems to support space and other missions. Alphacore, a leader in analog, mixed-signal, and RF integrated circuit design intellectual property, excels in creating high-performance, low-power designs optimized for robust operation in space and challenging radiation and temperature environments.

These contracts are part of NASA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and represent "Phase II" contracts, signifying that Alphacore has successfully completed "Phase I" feasibility studies for each project.

The new NASA Phase II programs include:

• Development of a state-of-the-art radiation-hardened mixed-signal (analog & digital) microelectronics design library. This library will enable Alphacore and other engineering teams to accelerate the creation of circuitry capable of withstanding extreme temperature variations (-230 °C to +85 °C) and high radiation levels, enabling safe and reliable operation in harsh environments. The circuits will tolerate total ionizing doses (TID) up to 300krad(Si) and various single-event effects (SEE) radiation.
• Creation of a radiation-hardened, highly accurate Battery Analog Front-End (B-AFE) Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC). This ASIC will integrate low-noise, high dynamic range, and precision measurement capabilities, including Coulomb Counting (CC), temperature, and terminal voltage monitoring. Additionally, it will feature embedded Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and encompass essential Analog-to-Digital interface and signal conditioning functions. It will support algorithms for State of Charge (SOC), State of Energy (SOE), State of Health (SOH), State of Power (SOP), State of Temperature (SOT), and State of Safety (SOS) measurements critical for monitoring and maintaining system operations.
• Development of a 10kW, 100-Vdc to 5,000-Vdc radiation-tolerant, bidirectional, high-voltage, high-gain, lightweight, high-efficiency DC-DC converter. This converter will leverage a mixed-signal (analog/digital) power management integrated circuit (PMIC) to drive external Wide Band Gap (WBG) gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) field effect transistors (FETs) and passive components. The PMIC will directly address the power management needs of lunar and Mars exploration initiatives.
• Creation of a low-cost, scalable data acquisition system (SDAS) centered around an innovative application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs). The SDAS will incorporate advanced digitizing microelectronics designed to support numerous millimeter to sub-millimeter-wave experiments for both ground-based and space-based deep-space exploration.

These projects align with objectives for future missions detailed in NASA’s "Strategic Technology Investment Plan" and fulfill the SBIR program mandate to develop 'dual-use' technologies that can be applied in other government and commercial markets.