Discovery Semiconductors Awarded Patent on Microsatellite Technology

Discovery Semiconductors announced the grant of US Patent 6,137,171 entitled "Lightweight miniaturized integrated micro-satellite employing advanced semiconductor processing and packaging technology." The innovations claimed in the patent enable reducing the weight of communications and remote sensing satellites to 10 kg (22 pounds) and the volume to 5000 cubic centimeters (305 cubic inches). The instrumentation module or payload portion of the satellite can be reduced to 32 grams and 200 cc (1.07 ounces & 12 cubic inches).

Conventional satellites are ten times bigger and heavier than the patented design due to the bulk of packaging separate functions in individual sub-assemblies. By employing the company's capabilities to design and fabricate opto-electronic integrated circuits (OEIC) on Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and Silicon (Si) wafers, complete sub-systems of the electronic module will be fabricated on individual wafers. These wafers are then stacked in a cylindrical central housing and interconnected to the module via contacts on the circumference of the wafers.

Selected signals can be communicated between wafers utilizing light sources and detectors integrated onto the wafers via methods patented by Discovery Semiconductors in US patent number 5,621,227 ("Method and apparatus for monolithic opto-electronic integrated circuit using selective epitaxy"). For example, the RF communications antenna would be fabricated on the wafer facing earth with one of the company's wide bandwidth detectors at its center. The antenna drive signal would be communicated from the signal-processing wafer via an integrated semiconductor laser, eliminating the need for bulky RF interconnects.

Edited by Gregg Miller
Managing Editor, RF Globalnet