In December, Space Forge launched and remotely activated its orbital furnace on-board its ForgeStar-1 satellite. This accomplishment represents an exciting step forward for in-space manufacturing. This groundbreaking furnace created a continuous ribbon of super-heated plasma, accomplishing what was necessary to create uniform, high-quality semiconductor crystals. These seed crystals will subsequently grow into substrates of gallium and aluminum nitride or silicon carbide back on Earth. These materials are the key to creating more efficient, higher-performance next-generation power devices.
The potential of these space-grown materials is tremendous. Joshua Western, co-founder and CEO of Space Forge, emphasized that from just one kilogram of space-grown semiconductor, manufacturers on Earth could produce tonnes of high-performance material. That would allow for advancements in electronics, pharmaceuticals, and countless other areas, potentially providing trillions of dollars of benefit to Americans.
Space Forge’s initiative is part of a growing trend among companies looking to harness the unique advantages of microgravity for material production. The company has successfully flown multiple orbital missions as a pathfinder for its return technology. It hopes to do even more this year, as soon as late summer. The ForgeStar-1 satellite is scheduled to deploy a new type of heat shield. Indeed, it will do so during its de-orbit maneuver later this year as part of its routine operations.
The Advantages of Microgravity
Microgravity is a special environment where its unique conditions can lead to remarkable improvements for the growth of semiconductor crystals. Space Forge’s furnace is engineered to create and maintain the ideal environment for the chemistry processes required in crystal growth.
Western further explained how space conditions would provide a huge benefit as compared to Earth’s atmosphere.
“For example, if you’re worried about nitrogen interfering with your growth process, on Earth [in a vacuum chamber] nitrogen might be present at concentration of around 10 to the -11,” – Joshua Western
TT – As he explained, in space, nitrogen is found at only about 0.00005% concentration.
“In space, above 500 kilometers altitude, it’s naturally present at 10 to the -22.” – Joshua Western
This purity enables growth of the crystals to be larger size and more even in the crystals’ regularity, giving them the potential to surpass terrestrial alternatives. The results from a recent meta-analysis study, published in Nature earlier this year, were immensely promising. It discovered that 86 percent of crystals grown in space had better characteristics than their Earth-grown counterparts.
Whatever the case, experts insist that extreme progression in crystal quality now opens the door to remarkable innovations in electronic devices. E. Steve Putna, director of the Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute, pointed out the promise of space-grown crystals. He described how these crystals were able to increase switching efficiency by 20 to 40 percent due to their higher electron mobility.
The Economic Landscape of In-Space Manufacturing
Though the potential of materials grown in space is incredibly exciting, cost is a major driving factor in their use. The in-orbit manufacturing market is expected to jump to $28.19 billion by 2034. This wave is indicative of both investor and manufacturer excitement.
SpaceX provides an affordable option to get to low Earth orbit through its Falcon 9 rockets, costing an average of $1,500 per kilogram. This affordable access is allowing companies such as Space Forge to more easily transport their payloads into space. The reality of constrained opportunities with SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon capsule for returning materials to Earth introduces complications.
Matt Francis, CEO of Ozark Integrated Circuits, emphasized an exciting trend. Recent declines in price of silicon substrates are leading infrastructure operators away from investing in costly, space-grown crystals.
“While I remember paying $20k a wafer in the early days, we are down in the hundreds of dollars range in volume markets like power,” – Matt Francis
If sending things to space is useful, when it was expensive, he argued we should be using rather high costs. For everyone else, that’s no longer the case.
“When they were a prized commodity, maybe sending to space made sense. While the cost of space is decreasing, it’s not decreasing faster than the cost of producing wafers.” – Matt Francis
Despite the disappointment, Western is very much looking toward the future and to more specialized applications where materials grown in space might be invaluable.
Future Prospects and Challenges
As Space Forge builds the technology of in-space manufacturing, it will encounter both openings and obstacles. The energy savings as a result of implementing advanced material options is massive. Installation infrastructure deployments like 5G towers could achieve those same savings at 50 percent, Joshua Western suggested.
Putna highlighted how game-changing these materials could be for heavy-use applications including AI data centers.
“a game-changer for [AI data centers] where cooling costs are a primary bottleneck.” – E. Steve Putna
Specialists warn that space-grown materials have their confines.
“There will be a level of degradation over time and over generations of growth,” – Joshua Western
Despite these concerns, the promise for higher yields and efficiencies is too great to ignore. Putna’s point was that the higher yields on these pricey processors would tend to make up for the costs of sending materials into space.
“if a space-grown substrate increases the yield of a $10,000 high-end AI processor from 50 percent to 90 percent or allows a quantum computer to function closer to room temperature rather than near absolute zero, the launch cost becomes a negligible fraction of the total value created.” – E. Steve Putna