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The Ultimate Test: University of Idaho Chips Launched into Earth’s Magnetosphere Today
March 22, 2006
POST FALLS, Idaho--In the wee hours of the morning, exactly 6:03 a.m. PST today, over the Pacific Ocean southwest of Monterey, Calif., three New Millennium Program ST5 micro-satellites were successfully launched into space.
Incorporated on-board those satellites are University of Idaho Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Bimolecular Research’s (CAMBR) radiation-tolerant computer chips. Radiation-hardened using unique design techniques that allows them to be produced cheaply in existing facilities, it is hoped that the chips will see action in future near-earth and deep-space missions, as well as in applications closer to home.
The ST5 constellation’s mission objective is to demonstrate and flight qualify several innovative technologies in the harsh environment of space, while also examining the effect of solar activity on the Earth's inner magnetosphere. The major innovative technologies launched this morning include: a Cold Gas Micro Thruster; X-Band Transponder; Variable Emittance Coatings for Thermal Control, and the UI CAMBR CULPRiT microchip technology.
A team of UI engineers lead by Professor Gary Maki at the CAMBR research institute, housed at the UI Research Park in Post Falls, developed the microchips as part of a program funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The program goal is to create low-power technologies for spacecraft electronics. Team members responsible for the design of the chips launched today include Sterling Whitaker, Lowell Miles, Kenneth Hass and Laura Davis.
The UI’s Ultra Low power (ULP) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) radiation tolerant (CULPRiT) technology chips differ from standard spacecraft electronics, and operate at markedly lower voltage than current microprocessors – 0.5 volts compared to 3 to 5 volts, which dramatically reduces satellite power demands.
The ability to operate at reduced-threshold voltages – the minimum amount of power required to turn on a transistor – makes the chips unique. Reducing dependence on power supplies is a critical issue in space vehicle design. The chip’s drastic reduction in power demands free engineers to design radically different craft because increased battery life results in smaller solar panels and smaller satellites. Back on earth, the chip also may affect the design of cellular communications technologies.
The research which resulted in the CULPRiT technology began under Maki’s guidance in 1998 at the University of New Mexico. He and the team returned to the University of Idaho to form the CAMBR institute in 2002.
“This is a day that we have anxiously anticipated for several years,” said
CAMBR Associate Director Jody Gambles. “So long, in fact, that unfortunately the NASA Web site lists the major contributor as the UNM rather than the University of Idaho, but we all know who the major contributors really are.”
All three of the 55-pound, when fully fueled, ST5 satellites deployed from a Pegasus rocket are circling the Earth every 136 minutes. Other technologies to be tested on this trip include a miniature magnetometer, miniature spinning sun sensor, spacecraft deployment mechanism, and magnetometer deployment boom Nutation Damper.
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Contacts: Jody Gambles, associate director, Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research (CAMBR), University of Idaho Research Park, (208) 262-2012; jgambles@cambr.uidaho.edu
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