NASA has demonstrated a resolve for a flagship mission in the coming years to revisit Venus, and land instruments on the surface. Venus has a corrosive, high-pressure (~100 bar), high-temperature (up to 500�C) environment. NASA experts have stated that the single greatest challenge to providing devices operable at the Venusian surface is the availability of high-temperature digital, analog and mixed-signal electronics. The SiC integrated circuit technology that Ozark IC is actively commercializing could easily meet NASA targets of 5-10 hours at 500�C with proper packaging. By demonstrating the feasibility of a SiC microcontroller, this proposal represents a major step in creating a general-purpose SiC-based chipset that will support a majority of functions required by a Venus lander
Other non-NASA applications are relatively obvious – they include any market that needs a programmable (radiation-hardened) microcontroller that will operate over a wide temperature range. These markets include, but are not limited to, Military Aerospace, Military/Non-Military Space Applications, Commercial Aviation and Oil Exploration, among others. Ozark IC is continually being contacted by companies in these areas asking for these types of components that will operate over wide temperature ranges.
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