Prolonged silicon carbide integrated circuit operation in Venus surfaceatmospheric conditions

• Published in: AIP advances Vol. 6; no. 12
• Main Authors: Neudeck, Philip G, Meredith, Roger D, Chen, Liangyu, Spry, David J, Nakley, Leah M, Hunter, Gary W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 01-12-2016
• Subjects: Cooling; Electronics; Field effect transistors; Integrated circuits; JFET; Lander vehicles; Missions; Organic chemistry; Pressure vessels; Semiconductor devices; Silicon carbide; Venus atmosphere; Venus surface
• ISSN: 2158-3226
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4973429

The prolonged operation of semiconductor integrated circuits(ICs) needed forlong-duration exploration of the surface of Venus has proven insurmountably challenging to date due tothe ∼ 460 °C, ∼ 9.4 MPa caustic environment. Past and planned Venus landers have been limitedto a few hours of surface operation, even when IC electronics needed for basic landeroperation are protected with heavily cumbersome pressure vessels and cooling measures. Here we demonstratevastly longer (weeks) electrical operation of two silicon carbide (4H-SiC) junction fieldeffect transistor (JFET) ring oscillatorICs tested withchips directly exposed (no cooling and no protective chip packaging) to a high-fidelityphysical and chemical reproduction of Venus’ surface atmosphere. This represents more than100-fold extension of demonstrated Venus environment electronics durability. With further technologymaturation, such SiC IC electronics could drastically improve Venus lander designs andmission concepts, fundamentally enabling long-duration enhanced missions to the surface ofVenus.