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Testing New Transistors In Space
Roland Piquepaille writes "Northwestern University researchers have developed new transistors which are currently tested on the International Space Station (ISS) to see how they react to cosmic radiation. These transistors, which are using a new kind of gate dielectric material called a self-assembled nanodielectric (SAND), are exposed to radiation outside the ISS since March 22, 2008, and will stay there for one year. According to the researchers, these new transistors could be used 'on long space missions since early experiments on Earth indicate that the transistors hold up well when exposed to radiation.'"
I'm pretty sure if I stuck some sand out in space, it'll still be sand in a year.
Cool, but I think first contact would be deliciously more awkward if we were still using valves.
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Transistors are rediculously cheap when you look at the variable cost of producing them. But when you look at the cost of the manufacturing plants to produce them the price is just skyrocketing. I wouldn't be surprised if Intel funded some of this research or will look to doing it themselves within the next 20 years.
cost of fabircation plants with time: http://www.icknowledge.com/economics/fab_costs.html
if that trend continues and Intel (or other semis) can cough up enough cash I could imagine them making chips out in space, at least for research purposes. (to start) Sure, you deal with radiation and maybe meteors and space junk. But having an earthquake-free, flood-free, zero-g lab would probably help provide us with some new insights into making more resilient, better peroming transistors and microchips.
How about ROCKS: Reduced-Oxide Capacitor Kilowatt Signaling? Or DIRT: Densely-Inductive Resonant Transformers!
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
As opposed to the old kind of dielectric, silicon dioxide, which is also known as... sand.
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We developed "thin film" polymers that acted as a temperature sensor years ago that could applied as coatings on electronics. To make the polymers appropriate sensing, they were implanted with ions in an accelerator and in affect, made them (hence electonics coated) radiation hardened as well. This was specifically developed and funded for satellite technology. If you do the math, you can determine the likely DOD application. I imagine they could be used in a similar application as dielectrics as well.
What are the operational/performance characteristics of these SANDs as opposed to transistors with other types of dielectric material that also get used in the same manner?
The game.
let us hasten to welcome our self-assembling nanodielectric overlords back to Earth!
Because instead of paying for earthquake or flood insurance, something which is well-understood and known to work against hazards which happen infrequently, we want to spend about $10,000 a pound to lift the entire facility into orbit, where it will be exposed to total-loss failure constantly, for the life of the facility. But with the $20 billion terrestrial plant moved into space at the costs of hundreds of billions of dollars, at least it will be secure from floods and earthquakes! We'll just replace the miniscule threat of floods/earthquakes with the threat of, well, whatever kills it will probably be pretty unique -- a miniscule design flaw in a pressure seal, a one-off bug in control code, there are a billion possible things that can go wrong and they all spell TIME FOR A NEW PLANT. And estimating that risk? Well, assuming we're as "successful" protecting the fab plant as we are at protecting our shuttle pilots, there will only be a 2% chance or so of each flight to it blowing up.
And we're doing this to... save money.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
they're called relays.
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I don't think the processors are what they should be worried about. I mean yeah, it flips a 0 or 1 and your ship blows up cuz of corrupted signals to certain parts but still, the humans inside need to be shielded from the radiation too! And I know all computers can't necessarily be inside a space vehicle but if they spent time making really, really good shielding, they could put it on everything inside or outside and keep everyone and everything safe and use regular transistors. All I gotta say is can lead be magnetized? That's make good polarized hull plating. That or tritanium or whatever they used on Enterprise (the crappy recent show)
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I don't know *what* the deal is, but that there is some kind of deal would seem to be the more likely conclusion.
./ into 'rolandp plagiarism inc' ?
Maybe they should change
Is there anybody out there that can make a stab at how much he makes from this ?
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This press release is a again a prime example of how popular science has been dumbed down until it avails to nothing. There is not a single word about the true technical nature of this "discovery" - for anybody who is versed in the field this press release is utterly useless. I believe it is important to communicate science to the general public, but I really fail to understand why this automatically entails the total absence of an accurate technical description?
One could probably argue that insiders may have heard about "SAND" (Stupid Acronym for Nonexistent Device?) through usual technical channels. But this is not the case here as the scientific impact seems to be rather limited.
Yes our new transistor design has held up well after being bombarded with radiation for the past year. Alas our human crew didn't stand up so well. But our space ship survived! Success!
If they are trying to expose this device to cosmic radiation, the ISS is the wrong place to do it. ISS is in low earth orbit, which is below the Van Allen radiation belt. While it will see more cosmic radiation than here on earth, (mostly due to the South Atlantic Anomaly) A higher orbit is needed for a true simulation of a trip to deep space.
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Overlords? We're talking solar radiation and transistors here, this is Fantastic Four meets Iron Man!
The article doesn't say what energy range of cosmic radiation they are concerned about. If only very high energies, these are mostly the non-solar variety of cosmic radiation and the flux of these does maximize during solar minimum conditions (where we are now). In that case, they are testing at the right time. However, if these beasts are sensitive to lower-energy radiation such as that produced by energetic solar flares, levels of this radiation are now at their lowest point in the solar cycle. I've seen this before - test something in space at solar minimum and then be surprised when the production model fails when it is launched into solar maximum conditions.
A more detailed summary can be found American Chemical Society site, Chemical & Engineering News: Trading SiO2 Dielectrics for SANDs
Doesn't mean much to me but I get warm feeling all through me gutty-wuts when I read such geeky stuff.
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Are these transistors comparable to the non-SAND kinds in terms of switching speed, current leakage, and other important properties of a transistor?