NASA Building Massively Heat-Resistant Chips 172
coondoggie writes "NASA researchers have designed and built a new circuit chip that can take the heat of a blast furnace and keep on performing. Silicon carbide (SiC) chips can operate at 600 degrees Celsius or 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit where conventional silicon-based electronics — limited to about 350 C — would fail. The new silicon carbide differential amplifier integrated circuit chip may provide benefits to anything requiring long-lasting electronic circuits in very hot environments such as jets, spacecraft, and industrial machinery. In particular, NASA said SiC applications will include energy storage, renewable energy, nuclear power, and electrical drives."
Re:imagine the possibilties (Score:2, Insightful)
What will you use for interconnects? (Score:2, Insightful)
So it's OK if the chip survives but the rest of the circuit melts?
Venus Lander! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:A=A if you ignore B (Score:3, Insightful)
You underfund the agency and expect huge rewards? We dumped so much more money into NASA back in the days of the spacerace and we as a society benefited from hundreds of technologies that today we take for granted.
I am not saying NASA shouldn't be watched for spending....but you can't expect an agency to perform if you don't give it money.
This may not be a huge accomplishment, but being able to withstand higher heat means that you can keep your current cooling apparatus the same and simply allow the chip to run faster (and hotter). Yes, the heat still needs to escape, and there may be other problems with implementation, but you have to take that first step first.
My first questions (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The fun place to use this (Score:2, Insightful)
Just good to know I can run my Intel CPU at 350C! (Score:3, Insightful)
Good enough for Venus (Score:3, Insightful)
The only pictures [mentallandscape.com] we have of the surface of Venus are from the Venera landers. (These USSR Venus landers [mentallandscape.com] were all inernally insulated and weren't designed to last on the surface more than about an hour; since the data were relayed from the fly-by bus spacecraft which was only in range for about that duration, there was no point in doing more.)
Re:Great idea (Score:1, Insightful)