$1 million space technology grant

PULLMAN – A WSU semi-conductor research center has been awarded a $1 million grant from the U.S. Air Force’s Air Force Resear
ch Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate (AFRL/RV) to help develop nanoscale electronics for a new era of advanced satellite technology.

 

Congressional support for the grant came from Washington State Senators Patty Murray and Marie Cantwell.

 

Faculty and students in the Center for Design of Analog-Digital Integrated Circuits (CDADIC), headquartered at WSU, will spend the next year on research to develop nanoscale circuits for defense and intelligent systems. The funding may also lead to advancing the next generation of consumer electronics.

 

“This research will add to the already stellar record of CDADIC’s professionals in mixed-signal design,” said Lt. John Demello of AFRL. “The center will focus on research for high-speed interconnects, reconfigurable analog-to-digital converters, and modeling methods that will aid in the nanoscale revolution.”

 

Nanoscale electronics is a field where electronic circuits are designed using devices with dimensions below 100 nanometers or approximately 100 times smaller than a human red blood cell.

 

This technology has made it possible to design increasingly smaller cell phones, flat-panel displays, MP3 players, and other miniature electronic devices. For space applications, this technology is critical in reducing launch and design costs of increasingly complex satellites.

 

Nanoelectronics will decrease these costs by greatly reducing the size, weight, and power requirements of next-generation satellites as well as with many other defense and consumer products.

 

The grant will also support 20-30 fellowships to graduate and undergraduate U.S. students to work on center researc
h.

 

“There is an approaching crisis in the number of U.S. citizens being trained in microelectronics,” said John Ringo, CDADIC director and professor in WSU’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “Increasing the number of students in this field is essential to expanding the domestic workforce in an area that has an important impact on our economy.”

 

For more information on the center, visit www.cdadic.org.