Center of Excellence (COE) Radiation Effect in Electronic Materials, Circuits, Devices, and Systems

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The USAF’s Space Enterprise vision, where autonomy and decision-making are pushed ever closer to space-based assets, and where unprecedented computational performance is expected on-station, is bringing to the fore new sets of technologies. Examples of emerging materials and the capabilities they will engender include: ·       Wide- and ultrawide-bandgap (WG/UWG) semiconductors, with the possibility of Ga2O3, nitrides, and diamond further in the future, for use in power electronics and RF amplifiers for space communications. ·       New narrow-gap materials, such as InGaP and InGaPSb, for next-generation mid-wavelength IR sensors. ·       New semiconductor alloys, IV-IV, III-V, or II-VI, for use in next-generation solar cells. ·       Two-dimensional (2-D), graphene-like materials, such as MoS2, and their heterostructures. ·       Devices based on new materials, and displaying new physics, such as memristors, synstors, and coupled oscillators, that enable very-low-power neuromorphic processing. ·       New device architectures, such as gate-all-around field effect transistors and massively 3-D integrated circuits with unforeseen radiation interactions. ·       New classes of bio-inspired algorithms and architectures, such as spiking deep neural networks, designed to function in noisy environments. ·       New directed energy devices that use electron beams to generate high-power microwave sources, and the concomitant e-beam damage. All of these materials and technologies require understanding of and mitigating the effects of space radiation environments. At the same time, there are new experimental and theoretical techniques that render many of the problems solvable. In light of this confluence between pressing problems and new techniques, AFRL intends to establish a COE in Radiation Effects in Materials, Devices, Circuits, and Systems. It will seek to discover the fundamental, underlying mechanisms that lead to degradation in device, circuit, and system performance, as well as a broad range of mitigation strategies. Studies of single-event effects and mitigation strategies must be part of any proposal. The center will pursue insertion of the new knowledge base into the next generation of modelling and simulation tools, including verification and validation of the resulting models.

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