Engineering Faculty to Share in NASA Research Grant

Wayne Johnson, Guofu Niu and Fa Foster Dai, faculty members in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Auburn University's Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, in collaboration with researchers at Georgia Tech, are participating in a NASA Exploration Systems Research and Technology Program grant. Auburn's share of the grant will be $2,375,000 over a four-year period.

The research team, led by John Cressler, Byers Professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is working on mixed-signal circuits that will improve the way electronic systems function in extremely cold temperatures. The circuits will be able to operate at cryogenic temperatures as cold as -230 degrees Celsius, or -382 degrees Fahrenheit, without heaters. The team will develop, fabricate, package, test and qualify mixed-signal circuits made of Silicon-Germanium. These circuits are essential to the design of electronics that operate, control, monitor and reconfigure many space systems.

Other researchers on the NASA project include Boeing, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University, the University of Maryland, BAE Systems, IBM and Lynguent Inc.

"I am delighted that NASA has selected this research area to support future space exploration," says Johnson. "This grant provides Auburn the opportunity to expand our program in extreme environment electronics research and participate as members of a world class research team in the field."