Avery Rosh—Radiation shielding of microelectronics via the additive manufacturing of nanocomposites

Avery Rosh, assistant staff in the Advanced Materials and Microsystems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, delivered the November 2023 Nano Explorations talk.

The miniaturization of satellite systems has compounded the need to protect microelectronic components from damaging radiation. Current approaches to mitigate this damage, such as indiscriminate mass shielding, built-in redundancies, and radiation hardened electronics, introduce high SWaP-C (Size, weight, and Power-Cost) penalties that reduce the overall performance of the satellite.

Additive manufacturing provides an appealing strategy to print radiation shielding only on susceptible components within an electronic assembly. Utilizing direct ink writing, we are able to conformally print customized nanocomposite inks at room temperatures directly and selectively onto commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics. The suite of inks uses a flexible styrene-isoprene-styrene block copolymer binder that can be filled with nanoparticles of varying atomic densities for varying radiation shielding capabilities.

Additionally, blended composites of both high and low Z fillers were created to investigate the performance in radiation attenuation depending on composition. We anticipate this low SWaP-C alternative to traditional shielding methods will enable the development of novel complex and compact satellite designs.

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Nano Explorations is a virtual seminar series powered by MIT.nano that features presentations by MIT students and postdocs on their work in nanoscience, nanotechnology, and other advanced research fields. The series was launched as a way to keep our nano community connected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Presentations take place once a month and are open to any interested viewers.

Read more about past and upcoming Nano Explorations at mitnano.mit.edu/nano-explorations.