ICARUS - Integrated Circuits for electrically powered spAcecraft pRopulsion Using Silicon carbide

According to Greek mythology, Icarus attempted to escape difficulties using newfound technology; wings made of feather and wax.

Overconfidence with the reliability of this technology caused his demise, as he flew too close to the sun where the wax in the wings melted and he fell to his death.

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a modern semiconductor technology, which has demonstrated power semiconductor switches capable of supporting high electric fields, integrated circuits operating at temperatures above 500 °C, and survivability in radiation hard environments.

The ground-breaking idea in project ICARUS is to demonstrate high voltage integrated circuits in SiC, blocking 5000 V or more.

We foresee several space applications that can take advantage of the lower weight, lower volume and higher reliability that integrated circuit solutions offer. The ground-breaking application example is electrically powered spacecraft propulsion. The idea is in itself not new, but the application of SiC in this application is.

Thanks to nine times higher critical field for breakdown in SiC compared to silicon, it is possible to reach such high voltages in an integrated circuit of reasonable lateral and vertical dimension.

Based on 25-years of SiC technology experience, we will use in-house designed SiC integrated circuits built with state-of-the-art high voltage power switches designed to block high electric fields.

The goal of project ICARUS is to demonstrate Integrated Circuits for electrically powered spAcecraft pRopulsion Using Silicon carbide, finding the limits of the material SiC by "approaching the sun", while hopefully avoiding the fate of Icarus.

Project ICARUS will enable Sweden and Europe to match or exceed US capability in space and other harsh environment applications.