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At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2004

Self-contained sub-millimeter wave rectifying antenna integrated circuit

The invention is embodied in a monolithic semiconductor integrated circuit in which is formed an antenna, such as a slot dipole antenna, connected across a rectifying diode. In the preferred embodiment, the antenna is tuned to received an electromagnetic wave of about 2500 GHz so that the device is on the order of a wavelength in size, or about 200 microns across and 30 microns thick. This size is ideal for mounting on a microdevice such as a microrobot for example. The antenna is endowed with high gain in the direction of the incident radiation by providing a quarter-wavelength (30 microns) thick resonant cavity below the antenna, the cavity being formed as part of the monolithic integrated circuit. Preferably, the integrated circuit consists of a thin gallium arsenide membrane overlying the resonant cavity and supporting an epitaxial Gallium Arsenide semiconductor layer. The rectifying diode is a Schottky diode formed in the GaAs semiconductor layer and having an area that is a very small fraction of the wavelength of the 2500 GHz incident radiation. The cavity provides high forward gain in the antenna and isolation from surrounding structure.

Siegel, Peter H.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Solar-Electrochemical Power System for a Mars Mission

This report documents a sizing study of a variety of solar electrochemical power systems for the intercenter NASA study known as 'Mars Exploration Reference Mission'. Power systems are characterized for a variety of rovers, habitation modules, and space transport vehicles based on requirements derived from the reference mission. The mission features a six-person crew living on Mars for 500 days. Mission power requirements range from 4 kWe to 120 kWe. Primary hydrogen and oxygen fuel cells, regenerative hydrogen and oxygen fuel cells, sodium sulfur batteries advanced photovoltaic solar arrays of gallium arsenide on germanium with tracking and nontracking mechanisms, and tent solar arrays of gallium arsenide on germanium are evaluated and compared.

Withrow, Colleen A.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Holographic fabrication of gratings in metal substrates

A program for investigating the grain enlargement resulting from the laser recrystallization of a thin gallium arsenide film on a patterned substrate, a technique known as graphoepitaxy was evaluated. More specifically, the effects of recrystallizing an uncapped gallium arsenide film using a continuous wave neodymium YAG laser operating at 1.06 microns were studied. In an effort to minimize arsenic loss from the film, the specimens were held in an arsine atmosphere during recrystallization. Two methods for fabricating patterned substrates were developed, one using reactive ion etching of a molybdenum film on both sapphire and silicon substates and another by preferential wet etching of a silicon substrate onto which a film of molybdenum was subsequently deposited.

Fletcher, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Composite Semiconductor Substrates

Epitaxial structure of three semiconductor materials - silicon, gallium arsenide, and cadmium telluride - makes possible integrated monolithic focal-plane arrays of photodectors. Silicon layer contains charge-coupled devices, gallium arsenide layer contains other fast electronic circuitry, and cadmium telluride layer serves as base for array of mercury cadmium telluride infrared sensors. Technique effectively combines two well-established techniques; metalorganic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) and molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). Multilayer structure includes HgCdTe light sensors with Si readout devices and GaAs signal-processing circuits. CdTe layer provides base for building up HgCdTe layer.

Nouhi, Akbar↗
NASA NTRS1987

Electro-optical characterization of GaAs solar cells

The electro-optical characterization of gallium arsenide p/n solar cells is discussed. The objective is to identify and understand basic mechanisms which limit the performance of high efficiency gallium arsenide solar cells. The approach involves conducting photoresponse and temperature dependent current-voltage measurements, and interpretation of the data in terms of theory to determine key device parameters. Depth concentration profiles are also utilized in formulating a model to explain device performance.

Olsen, Larry C.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Method of Fabricating Schottky Barrier solar cell

On a thin substrate of low cost material with at least the top surface of the substrate being electrically conductive is deposited a thin layer of heavily doped n-type polycrystalline germanium, with crystalline sizes in the submicron range. A passivation layer may be deposited on the substrate to prevent migration of impurities into the polycrystalline germanium. The polycrystalline germanium is recrystallized to increase the crystal sizes in the germanium layer to not less than 5 micros to serve as a base layer on which a thin layer of gallium arsenide is vapor epitaxially grown to a selected thickness. A thermally-grown oxide layer of a thickness of several tens of angstroms is formed on the gallium arsenide layer. A metal layer, of not more about 100 angstroms thick, is deposited on the oxide layer, and a grid electrode is deposited to be in electrical contact with the top surface of the metal layer. An antireflection coating may be deposited on the exposed top surface of the metal layer.

Stirn, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Performance measurement of low concentration ratio solar array for space application

The measured performance of a silicon and a gallium arsenide low concentration ratio solar array (LCRSA) element is presented. The element characteristics measured in natural sunlight are off pointing performance and response to mechanical distortions. Laboratory measurements of individual silicon and gallium-arsenide solar cell assemblies are also made. The characteristics measured in the laboratory involved responses to temperature and intensity variations as well as to the application of reverse bias potentials. The element design details covered include the materials, the solar cells, and the rationale for selecting these specific characteristics. The measured performance characteristics are contrasted with the predicted values for both laboratory testing and high altitude natural sunlight testing. Excellent agreement between analytical predictions and measured performance is observed.

Mills, M. W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Onboard high data rate signal processing and storage

The objective is to advance the state of the art in onboard image data processing and storage through the use of advanced gallium arsenide integrated circuit technology. Viewgraphs are given on research and development efforts, an adaptive programmable processor chip set, design characteristics of an eight bit general processor, and a density comparison of silicon and gallium arsenide integrated circuits.

Miller, Warner H.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Concentrator designs for space photovoltaic arrays

The unique set of operating constraints determining key concentrating solar array design characteristics for low earth orbital, geosynchronous and interplanetary missions are considered. Minimum cost is crucial at low earth orbits, performance and design life are needed in geosynchronous orbit, and structural pointing accuracy and radiation resistance are essential in interplanetary designs. The impact of such emerging technologies as ultrathin cells, gallium arsenide cells and cold mirrors is discussed. Power-to-mass ratios as high as 200 W per kilogram at a distance of 1 astronomical unit from the sun are possible, using concentrators in conjunction with gallium arsenide arrays.

Rockey, D. E.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Etching and Growth of GaAs

In-place process for etching and growth of gallium arsenide calls for presaturation of etch and growth melts by arsenic source crystal. Procedure allows precise control of thickness of etch and newly grown layer on substrate. Etching and deposition setup is expected to simplify processing and improve characteristics of gallium arsenide lasers, high-frequency amplifiers, and advanced integrated circuits.

Seabaugh, A. C.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Peeled film GaAs solar cell development

Thin-film, single-crystal gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells could exhibit a specific power approaching 700 W/kg including coverglass. A simple process has been described whereby epitaxial GaAs layers are peeled from a reusable substrate. This process takes advantage of the extreme selectivity of the etching rate of aluminum arsenide (AlAs) over GaAs in dilute hydrofluoric acid. The feasibility of using the peeled film technique to fabricate high-efficiency, low-mass GaAs solar cells is presently demonstrated. A peeled film GaAs solar cell was successfully produced. The device, although fractured and missing the aluminum gallium arsenide window and antireflective coating, had a Voc of 874 mV and a fill factor of 68 percent under AM0 illumination.

Wilt, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Multi-Modulator for Bandwidth-Efficient Communication

A modulator circuit board has recently been developed to be used in conjunction with a vector modulator to generate any of a large number of modulations for bandwidth-efficient radio transmission of digital data signals at rates than can exceed 100 Mb/s. The modulations include quadrature phaseshift keying (QPSK), offset quadrature phase-shift keying (OQPSK), Gaussian minimum-shift keying (GMSK), and octonary phase-shift keying (8PSK) with square-root raised-cosine pulse shaping. The figure is a greatly simplified block diagram showing the relationship between the modulator board and the rest of the transmitter. The role of the modulator board is to encode the incoming data stream and to shape the resulting pulses, which are fed as inputs to the vector modulator. The combination of encoding and pulse shaping in a given application is chosen to maximize the bandwidth efficiency. The modulator board includes gallium arsenide serial-to-parallel converters at its input end. A complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) field-programmable gate array (FPGA) performs the coding and modulation computations and utilizes parallel processing in doing so. The results of the parallel computation are combined and converted to pulse waveforms by use of gallium arsenide parallel-to-serial converters integrated with digital-to-analog converters. Without changing the hardware, one can configure the modulator to produce any of the designed combinations of coding and modulation by loading the appropriate bit configuration file into the FPGA.

Gray, Andrew↗
NASA NTRS1999

Design of Ceramic Springs for Use in Semiconductor Crystal Growth in Microgravity

Segregation studies can be done in microgravity to reduce buoyancy driven convection and investigate diffusion-controlled growth during the growth of semiconductor crystals. During these experiments, it is necessary to prevent free surface formation in order to avoid surface tension driven convection (Marangoni convection). Semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide and germanium shrink upon melting, so a spring is necessary to reduce the volume of the growth chamber and prevent the formation of a free surface when the sample melts. A spring used in this application must be able to withstand both the high temperature and the processing atmosphere. During the growth of gallium arsenide crystals during the GTE Labs/USAF/NASA GaAs GAS Program and during the CWRU GaAs programs aboard the First and Second United States microgravity Laboratories, springs made of pyrolytic boron nitride (PBN) leaves were used. The mechanical properties of these PBN springs have been investigated and springs having spring constants ranging from 0.25 N/mm to 25 N/mm were measured. With this improved understanding comes the ability to design springs for more general applications, and guidelines are given for optimizing the design of PBN springs for crystal growth applications.

Kaforey, M. F.↗
NASA NTRS1982

The effect of different solar simulators on the measurement of short-circuit current temperature coefficients

Gallium arsenide solar cells are considered for several high temperature missions in space. Both near-Sun and concentrator missions could involve cell temperatures on the order of 200 C. Performance measurements of cells at elevated temperatures are usually made using simulated sunlight and a matched reference cell. Due to the change in bandgap with increasing temperature at portions of the spectrum where considerable simulated irradiance is present, there are significant differences in measured short circuit current at elevated temperatures among different simulators. To illustrate this, both experimental and theoretical data are presented for gallium arsenide cells.

Curtis, H. B.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) technology for space communications applications

Future communications satellites are likely to use gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) technology in most, if not all, communications payload subsystems. Multiple-scanning-beam antenna systems are expected to use GaAs MMICs to increase functional capability, to reduce volume, weight, and cost, and to greatly improve system reliability. RF and IF matrix switch technology based on GaAs MMICs is also being developed for these reasons. MMIC technology, including gigabit-rate GaAs digital integrated circuits, offers substantial advantages in power consumption and weight over silicon technologies for high-throughput, on-board baseband processor systems. For the more distant future pseudomorphic indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) and other advanced III-V materials offer the possibility of MMIC subsystems well up into the millimeter wavelength region. All of these technology elements are in NASA's MMIC program. Their status is reviewed.

Connolly, Denis J.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) technology for space communications applications

Future communications satellites are likely to use gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) technology in most, if not all, communications payload subsystems. Multiple-scanning-beam antenna systems are expected to use GaAs MMIC's to increase functional capability, to reduce volume, weight, and cost, and to greatly improve system reliability. RF and IF matrix switch technology based on GaAs MMIC's is also being developed for these reasons. MMIC technology, including gigabit-rate GaAs digital integrated circuits, offers substantial advantages in power consumption and weight over silicon technologies for high-throughput, on-board baseband processor systems. For the more distant future pseudomorphic indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) and other advanced III-V materials offer the possibility of MMIC subsystems well up into the millimeter wavelength region. All of these technology elements are in NASA's MMIC program. Their status is reviewed.

Connolly, Denis J.↗