Federal award (DEFINITIVE CONTRACT, fiscal year 2021)
Recipient: THE BOEING COMPANY
Awarding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Funding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Period of performance: 2017-09-01 to 2023-03-31
Current total value of award: $599558
Description: UNDER THIS EFFORT, BOEING WILL TEAM WITH THE NANOFABRICATION GROUP AT THE CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY  TO PERFORM THE FOLLOWING EFFORTS RELATIVE TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FIELD EMISSION VACUUM ELECTRONIC DEVICES FOR OPERATION ABOVE 500 DEGREES CELSIUS. (1) DEMONSTRATE NANOTRIDE DEVICES BASED ON FIELD EMISSION VACUUM (FEV) ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY (2) DESIGN AND FABRICATE SMALL INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (OSCILLATOR FOR FREQUENCIES CORRESPONDING TO S-BAND, 2GHZ) (3) VERIFY THE OPERATION OF DEVICES AND OSCILLATOR CIRCUIT AT 500 C IN VACUUM, FOR OVER 1,500 HOURS (60 DAYS).  MOST SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES OPERATE UP TO 250 C.  RECENT ADVANCES IN CARBIDE AND NITRIDE SEMICONDUCTORS HOLD PROMISE FOR HIGHER TEMPERATURES, YET ARE ASSOCIATED WITH HIGH R&D COSTS.  THERE IS A NEED FOR TECHNOLOGY WITH THE SIMPLICITY OF VACUUM TUBES AND WITH MICRON SIZES.  THIS CONTRACT IS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND FABRICATION OF FIELD EMISSION VACUUM (FEV) DEVICES AND AN OSCILLATOR CIRCUIT FOR 2 GHX (S-BAND).  IMPLEMENTATION WILL BE COMPLIMENTED BY THEORETICAL/SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE PATH TO X-BAND.  ADDITIONALLY, THE EFFORT WILL INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING (1) DEVELOPMENT OF A DEVICE MODEL FOR HSPICE CIRCUIT SIMULATIONS AND (2) SIMULATION USING FIRST-PRINCIPLES MODELING TOOLS, OF METAL MIGRATION FOR TUNGSTEN AND DERIVATIVES AT HIGH TEMPERATURES.