INTERNATIONAL FEMTOSCIENCE, INCORPORATED — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: MDA22-008

Description

The electronics onboard a missile-defense interceptor must operate in a harsh environment and reach high temperatures due to aero-heating, self-heating, and/or proximity to a propulsion system. These high temperatures degrade electrical performance and weaken the ability to withstand mechanical and chemical stresses. Conventional silicon-based electronics fail above a certain temperature whereby requiring insulation, isolation, and/or cooling to protect these electronics. Unfortunately, employing these protective measures also complicates the interceptor's design and increases its size, weight, and power (SWaP). This issue creates the need to develop advanced packaging techniques for high temperature electronics in harsh flight environments that will extend the upper limit of operating temperature and minimize the need for these protective measures. There are many complex integration challenges that must be overcome to maintain suitable thermal, mechanical, and electrical connections across a wide range of operating temperatures. Of particular interest is the ability to attach and connect a high temperature die to its package. Higher levels of integration are also of interest, and due to the interrelated nature of packaging integration, should also be considered. Accordingly, International FemtoScience Inc. (FemtoSci) proposes a High Temperature Electronics (HTE) packaging system approach that primarily targets high temperature die attach, but also proposes 3D integrated ceramic substrates as well as advanced wire bonding for high temperature applications. We propose the development of a rapidly deployable advanced hybrid electronics packaging platform for embedded extreme environment microelectronic component systems. This platform will enable rapid production, testing, reiteration, and deployment of electronic subsystems for hypersonic OEM testing and demonstration and includes a novel die-attach material system to improve upon a system of substrate-embedded die integration, state-of-the-art rapid prototyping of high-temperature hybrid electronic systems, based around the world’s most advanced Silicon Carbide technology, and field-tested high-temperature multi-chip module (MCM) techniques which include die attach and electrical interconnection approaches that have survived testing to 500 °C and >15,000 g’s simultaneously. The FemtoSci team is eminently qualified to perform the proposed work and has been working on advancing the state-of-the-art with Siemens Energy and Siemens Corporate Technology for over 15 years and has demonstrated basic functionality of HTE successfully deployed in 500 °C temperature and 15,000g spin tests. Approved for Public Release | 22-MDA-11215 (27 Jul 22)