How to resist extreme temperatures: a new semiconductor flying to Mercury
Invited talk by researcher Philippe Godignon at the #PizzaSeminar organized by ICE-CSIC.
Electronic components based on semiconductors are widely used in scientific Spacecraft and Satellites. Silicon is the main semiconductor used for electronic devices integration, representing around 95% of the market. However, silicon exhibits several physical limitations when operating in harsh environments or extreme performances, namely at high temperature, high radiation ambient, high frequency or high voltage operation. Then, other semiconductors such as III-V or Wide Band Gap families, are considered to cover applications requiring these extreme conditions or performances. In the BepiColombo mission, defined to study Mercury, the proximity of Sun will strongly impact the Spacecraft electronics, especially the solar panels. We have used an innovative WBG semiconductor, Silicon Carbide, to develop a solar panel protection components able to operate in the extreme temperature and radiation environments of the mission. The device has been developed from scratch, as no equivalent device was available worldwide. A qualification test campaign has been defined and performed, adapting the ESA test standards to the unprecedented specificities of the BepiColombo mission. Finally, flight parts have been produced and delivered to the Solar Panel manufacturer for their integration. This is the first Wide Band Gap semiconductor active device used in a Space mission.
About Philippe Godignon
Prof. Philippe Godignon obtained in PhD in Electronics Engineering from the Institut des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon (INSA) in 1993. He joined the power group of IMB-CNM-CSIC in 1990 during his PhD, where he developed most of his research carrier. Since 1990, he has been mainly working on Si and SiC IGBT/VDMOS devices design and technologies as well as on GaN on Si HEMT and more recently on Diamond power diodes. As head of the Wide Band Gap group, his competences cover the power devices and integrated circuits technological and electrical modelling, technological process development as well as the electro-thermal characterisation. More recently, he has also been working on Carbon based materials synthesis and processing (CNT, graphene and polymers) for nanotechnologies and biosensors. He published 183 papers in international per review journals. He is co-author of 215 contributions to international and national conferences. Many of these journals publications and conferences contributions were done in collaboration with more than 40 different European research laboratories and companies. In 2017, he is co-editor of a book on epitaxial graphene. During the last 25 years, he has participated to 21 national and 26 European research projects, 18 of them as main IP. He has also been involved in 22 contracts with companies. He also co-authored 12 patents and participate to the creation of 2 spin-off companies, Caly Technologies and Graphene Nanotech. He supervised 16 PhD students. He is member of the steering committee of the ECSCRM conference and of the Technical Committee of the IEEE ISPSD, the two main annual international conferences of his main field of research.