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CEG News Release: Albany/NY’s Capital Region Is Becoming a Space Hub for Microelectronics

JAXA’s cargo spacecraft approaches the Internation Space Station. The cargo included semiconductor devices supported by AIM Photonics in Albany. Courtesy JAXA.

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In addition, the region has become a hotbed of high-tech, space-focused R&D efforts through work conducted at NY CreatesAlbany NanoTech Complex, the most advanced 300mm non-profit-led semiconductor R&D hub in North America. An effort such as the American Insititute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics), a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) operating at the NanoTech Complex, leverages a 300mm platform to develop technologies that have arrived on the International Space Station.

“NY Creates is proud to provide a launch pad for technologies that are enabling technological innovations for space applications around the globe. From modulators for efficient power consumption by spacecraft, to scalable arrayed superconducting nanowire single photon detectors for cutting-edge telescope applications, and superconducting digital logic circuits that lead to efficient data centers in space to address power consumption challenges, we are proud to work with our partners to pioneer these next-generation R&D efforts, pushing forward solutions to positively impact our daily lives in the U.S. – and beyond,” said NY Creates President Dave Anderson.

A few days before the RHET meeting started in Albany, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) cargo transport vehicle arrived to the International Space Station (ISS) with silicon-organic hybrid electro-optic (SOH EO) modulators and AI photonic chips. Those devices were made by AIM Photonics in NY CreatesAlbany NanoTech Complex. This mission was part of NASA‘s Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-21), which will use the ISS as a testbed for exposing advanced materials to the harsh space environment, such as intense radiation, atomic oxygen erosion, extreme temperature fluctuations, and vacuum conditions.

NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars uses BAE Systems' RAD750 single board computer. The next generation of the RAD750 will be the RAD510, which features a radiation-hardened system-on-chip made using GlobalFoundries' 45 nm silicon-on-insulator technology at Fab 8 in Malta. Courtesy NASA

IBM Research’s first system-on-a-chip developed by its AI Hardware Center at NY Creates’ Albany NanoTech Complex was the Spyre. It was produced using 5 nm node process technology. Last year, the University of Alabama (UAH) in Huntsville installed a computing cluster containing Spyre chips at its National Space Science Technology Center.

Media Mentions

Times Union: CEG: Capital Region becoming microelectronics hub for space programs