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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,117 records · Page 62
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2001

Electronics for Low-Temperature Space Operation Being Evaluated

Electronic components and systems capable of low-temperature operation are needed for many future NASA missions where it is desirable to have smaller, lighter, and cheaper (unheated) spacecraft. These missions include Mars (-20 to -120 C) orbiters, landers, and rovers; Europa (-150 C) oceanic exploratory probes and instrumentation; Saturn (-183 C) and Pluto (-229 C) interplanetary probes. At the present, most electronic equipment can operate down to only -55 C. It would be very desirable to have electronic components that expand the operating temperature range down to -233 C. The successful development of these low-temperature components will eventually allow space probes and onboard electronics to operate in very cold environments (out as far as the planet Pluto). As a result, radioisotope heating units, which are used presently to keep space electronics near room temperature, will be reduced in number or eliminated. The new cold electronics will make spacecraft design and operation simpler, more flexible, more reliable, lighter, and cheaper. Researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center are evaluating potential commercial off-the- shelf devices and are developing new electronic components that will tolerate operation at low temperatures down to -233 C. This work is being carried out mainly inhouse and also through university grants and commercial contracts. The components include analog-to-digital converters, semiconductor switches, capacitors, dielectric and packaging material, and batteries. For example, the effect of low temperature on the capacitance of three different types of capacitors is shown in the graph. Using these advanced components, system products will be developed, including dc/dc converters, battery charge/discharge management systems, digital control electronics, transducers, and sensor instrumentation.

Patterson, Richard L.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Digital Alloy Absorber for Photodetectors

In order to increase the spectral response range and improve the mobility of the photo-generated carriers (e.g. in an nBn photodetector), a digital alloy absorber may be employed by embedding one (or fraction thereof) to several monolayers of a semiconductor material (insert layers) periodically into a different host semiconductor material of the absorber layer. The semiconductor material of the insert layer and the host semiconductor materials may have lattice constants that are substantially mismatched. For example, this may performed by periodically embedding monolayers of InSb into an InAsSb host as the absorption region to extend the cutoff wavelength of InAsSb photodetectors, such as InAsSb based nBn devices. The described technique allows for simultaneous control of alloy composition and net strain, which are both key parameters for the photodetector operation.

Hill, Cory J.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Real time thermal imaging of high temperature semiconductor melts

A real time thermal imaging system with temperature resolution better than + or - 1 C and spatial resolution of better than 0.5 mm was developed and applied to the analysis of melt surface thermal field distributions in both Czochralski and liquid encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) growth configurations. The melt is viewed in near normal incidence by a high resolution charge coupled device camera to which is attached a very narrow bandpass filter. The resulting image is digitized and processed using a pipelined pixel processor operating at an effective 40 million operations per second thus permitting real time high frequency spatial and temporal filtering of the high temperature scene. A multi-pixel averaging algorithm was developed which permits localized, low noise sensing of temperature variations at any location in the hot zone as a function of time. This signial is used to implement initial elements of a feedforward growth control scheme which is aimed at reducing disturbances to the melt caused by the batch nature of the growth process. The effect of magnetic melt stabilization on radial melt temperature distributions was measured using this technique. Problems associated with residual internal reflections and non-optimized path geometry are discussed.

Wargo, Michael J.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Planar Rowland spectrometer for fiber-optic wavelength demultiplexing

A planar Rowland spectrometer was fabricated and characterized as a wavelength demultiplexer for multimode fiber-optic applications. The spectrometer consisted of a planar multimode glass waveguide with two curved end faces and a cylindrical concave attached to one of the end faces. Semiconductor lasers with wavelengths between 0.825 and 0.845 micron were used for the measurements. Cross-talk isolation between two adjacent fibers with center-to-center separation of 175 microns (100 A in wavelength difference) was measured to be 18 dB. The device's performance was limited by grating diffraction efficiency, optical aberration, waveguide dispersion, and waveguide losses.

Yen, H. W.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Phase-locked arrays of semiconductor injection lasers - A review

Arrays of phase-locked semiconductor injection lasers integrated monolithically on the same substrate are one potential method for obtaining higher power levels (in controlled mode operation) than those available from a single laser. This paper describes basic methods for analyzing the electrical and optical characteristics of these devices, and discusses problems associated with maintaining a stable operation in a single array mode ('supermode'). Various experimental results are presented and compared with theory.

Katz, Joseph↗
NASA NTRS1990

New heterojunction LWIR detector options

Researchers investigate the heterojunction internal photoemission (HIP) approach that potentially offers long wavelength infrared (LWIR) photovoltaic detector performance (single pixel) that is competitive with the best of other approaches being considered. Most significantly, this approach offers a relatively simple device technology that promises producible and uniform FPA's. Researchers emphasize an exciting process based on intervalence band absorption. They investigate both III-V and Si-based heterojunctions grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) in which the barrier can be tailored to the desired cutoff wavelength. In addition, MBE allows one to optimize the device structure with precise control of doping profiles and layer thicknesses, and perform band structure engineering by control of composition and heterojunction strain. Researchers also consider free carrier absorption in heterojunctions. Acceptable absorption coefficients can be achieved in very heavily n(exp +) doped semiconductor layers (approx. equals 10(exp 20)cm(exp -3). However, in this case the appreciable filling of conduction band states leads to a Schottky-like photoresponse with a gradual (quadratic) turn-on above threshold. A more satisfactory approach would be to use p(exp +) doping so that with the higher density of states in the heavy hole valence band there would be a narrow band of occupied states. This gives the desirable effect of a more rapid (linear) turn-on above threshold. Unfortunately, the higher hole effective mass also reduces (inversely) the free carrier absorption. For this and other reasons, the intervalence band absorption process looks much more promising.

Maserjian, Joseph↗
NASA NTRS1998

Study of Bulk and Elementary Screw Dislocation Assisted Reverse Breakdown in Low-Voltage (less than 250 V) 4H-SiC p(+)n Junction diodes: DC Properties - Part 1

Given the high density (approx. 10(exp 4)/sq cm) of elementary screw dislocations (Burgers vector = 1c with no hollow core) in commercial SiC wafers and epilayers, all appreciable current (greater than 1 A) SiC power devices will likely contain elementary screw dislocations for the foreseeable future. It is therefore important to ascertain the electrical impact of these defects, particularly in high-field vertical power device topologies where SiC is expected to enable large performance improvements in solid-state high-power systems. This paper compares the DC-measured reverse-breakdown characteristics of low-voltage (less than 250 V) small-area (less than 5 x 10(exp -4)/sq cm) 4H-SiC p(+)n diodes with and without elementary screw dislocations. Compared to screw dislocation-free devices, diodes containing elementary screw dislocations exhibited higher pre-breakdown reverse leakage currents, softer reverse breakdown I-V knees, and highly localized microplasmic breakdown current filaments. The observed localized 4H-SiC breakdown parallels microplasmic breakdowns observed in silicon and other semiconductors, in which space-charge effects limit current conduction through the local microplasma as reverse bias is increased.

Neudeck, Philip G.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Study of Bulk and Elementary Screw Dislocation Assisted Reverse Breakdown in Low-Voltage (<250 V) 4H-SiC p+n Junction Diodes - Part 1: DC Properties

Given the high density (approx. 10(exp 4)/sq cm) of elementary screw dislocations (Burgers vector = lc with no hollow core) in commercial SiC wafers and epilayers, all appreciable current (greater than 1 A) SiC power devices will likely contain elementary screw dislocations for the foreseeable future. It is therefore important to ascertain the electrical impact of these defects, particularly in high-field vertical power device topologies where SiC is expected to enable large performance improvements in solid-state high-power systems. This paper compares the DC-measured reverse-breakdown characteristics of low-voltage (less than 250 V) small-area (less than 5 x 10(exp -4) sq cm) 4H-SiC p(+)n diodes with and without elementary screw dislocations. Compared to screw dislocation-free devices, diodes containing elementary screw dislocations exhibited higher pre-breakdown reverse leakage currents, softer reverse breakdown I-V knees, and highly localized microplasmic breakdown current filaments. The observed localized 4H-SiC breakdown parallels microplasmic breakdowns observed in silicon and other semiconductors, in which space-charge effects limit current conduction through the local microplasma as reverse bias is increased.

Neudeck, Philip G.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Advances in Detector Technology for Infrared Astronomy

Progress in semiconductor materials and processing technology has allowed the development of infrared detector arrays with unprecedented sensitivity, for imaging and spectroscopic applications in astronomy. The earlier discrete-detector approach has been replaced by large-element (up to 1024 x 1024 pixel), multiplexed devices. Progress has been made against a number of key limiting factors, such as quantum efficiency, noise, spectral response, linearity, and dark current. Future developments will focus on the need for even larger arrays, which operate at higher temperatures.

McCreight, Craig↗
NASA NTRS2001

Using a delta-doped CCD to determine the energy of a low-energy particle

The back surface of a thinned charged-coupled device (CCD) is treated to eliminate the backside potential well that appears in a conventional thinned CCD during backside illumination. The backside of the CCD includes a delta layer of high-concentration dopant confined to less than one monolayer of the crystal semiconductor. The thinned, delta-doped CCD is used to determine the energy of a very low-energy particle that penetrates less than 1.0 nm into the CCD, such as a proton having energy less than 10 keV.

Nikzad, Shouleh↗
NASA NTRS2002

Delta-doped CCD's as low-energy particle detectors and imagers

The back surface of a thinned charged-coupled device (CCD) is treated to eliminate the backside potential well that appears in a conventional thinned CCD during backside illumination. The backside of the CCD includes a delta layer of high-concentration dopant confined to less than one monolayer of the crystal semiconductor. The thinned, delta-doped CCD is used to detect very low-energy particles that penetrate less than 1.0 nm into the CCD, including electrons having energies less than 1000 eV and protons having energies less than 10 keV.

Nikzad, Shouleh↗
NASA NTRS2021

Single-Event Effect Testing of the ON Semiconductor BSS123 N-Channel Logic Level Enhancement Mode FET and the Vishay Si1013R P-Channel MOSFET

This study was undertaken to determine the single event effect (SEE) susceptibility of two different MOSFET components. Heavy-ion testing was conducted at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) Berkeley Accelerator Space Effects (BASE) Facility 88” Cyclotron. Its purpose was to evaluate these devices as candidates for use on Goddard Modular SmallSat Architecture (GMSA) adapter board for the GTOSat project.

Michael J Campola↗
NASA NTRS1982

Gain saturation in semiconductor lasers - Theory and experiment

The semiconductor stimulated gain saturation model of Zee has been extended using reasonable approximations to obtain an analytical solution for the gain saturation process in PbSnTe and to determine the limit to single mode power directly from the gain expression, the intraband relaxation time, and device and material parameters. The theoretical results are compared with experimental observations for single transverse mode cavity narrow stripe buried heterostructure PbSnTe lasers. Those results are interpreted in terms of an intraband relaxation time on the order of 2 x 10 to the -12th s in the temperature range 20-80 K.

Kasemset, D.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Prognostics of Power Electronics, Methods and Validation Experiments

Abstract Failure of electronic devices is a concern for future electric aircrafts that will see an increase of electronics to drive and control safety-critical equipment throughout the aircraft. As a result, investigation of precursors to failure in electronics and prediction of remaining life of electronic components is of key importance. DC-DC power converters are power electronics systems employed typically as sourcing elements for avionics equipment. Current research efforts in prognostics for these power systems focuses on the identification of failure mechanisms and the development of accelerated aging methodologies and systems to accelerate the aging process of test devices, while continuously measuring key electrical and thermal parameters. Preliminary model-based prognostics algorithms have been developed making use of empirical degradation models and physics-inspired degradation model with focus on key components like electrolytic capacitors and power MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect-transistor). This paper presents current results on the development of validation methods for prognostics algorithms of power electrolytic capacitors. Particularly, in the use of accelerated aging systems for algorithm validation. Validation of prognostics algorithms present difficulties in practice due to the lack of run-to-failure experiments in deployed systems. By using accelerated experiments, we circumvent this problem in order to define initial validation activities.

Kulkarni, Chetan S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Semiconductor step-stress testing

Report describes extensive program to test behavior of discrete diodes and transistors subjected to power and temperature overstress. Commercially available bipolar and field effect transistors and diodes were stressed between 0.5 and 1.75 times maximum rated power. Two groups were temperature stressed: 160 hour steps starting at 75 C to maximum of 300 C. Cumulative failures and changes in device parameters were monitored and reasons for failures presented.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2004

Effect of anharmonicity of interatomic potential on strain distribution in semiconductor nanostructures

Experiments and theory have shown that the energy spectrum of nanostructures is extremely sensitive to the built-in strain. Knowledge of the strain distribution is therefore Experiments and theory have shown that the energy spectrum of nanostructures is extremely sensitive to the built-in strain. Knowledge of the strain distribution is therefore of utmost importance for the design of optical devices with prescribed light emission spectrum.

nanostructures↗
NASA NTRS1977

Semiconductor projectile impact detector

A semiconductor projectile impact detector is described for use in determining micrometeorite presence, as well as its flux and energy comprising a photovoltaic cell which generates a voltage according to the light and heat emitted by the micrometeorites upon impact. A counter and peak amplitude measuring device were used to indicate the number of particules which strike the surface of the cell as well as the kinetic energy of each of the particles.

Shriver, E. L.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Enhanced adhesion of films to semiconductors or metals by high energy bombardment

Films (12) of a metal such as gold or other non-insulator materials are firmly bonded to other non-insulators such as semiconductor substrates (10), suitably silicon or gallium arsenide by irradiating the interface with high energy ions. The process results in improved adhesion without excessive doping and provides a low resistance contact to the semiconductor. Thick layers can be bonded by depositing or doping the interfacial surfaces with fissionable elements or alpha emitters. The process can be utilized to apply very small, low resistance electrodes (78) to light-emitting solid state laser diodes (60) to form a laser device 70.

Tombrello, Thomas A.↗