IN-SPACe: Lift for space-grade electronics

IN-SPACe: Lift for space-grade electronics

Context: On June 10, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (INSPACe) headquarters in Ahmedabad.

About INSPACe:

• It is constituted to provide a level playing field for private companies to use Indian space infrastructure.
• This is part of reforms aimed at giving a boost to private sector participation in the entire range of space activities
• The IN-SPACe will also hand-hold, promote and guide the private industries in space activities through encouraging policies and a friendly regulatory environment.
• Earlier New Space India Limited (NSIL) was formed as nodal agency to produce PSLV through Indian industries under consortium route.
• These reforms would allow the Indian Space Research Organsiation (ISRO) to focus more on research and development activities, new technologies, exploration missions and human spaceflight programme.

What is Space-grade electronics?

• Space-grade electronics can withstand the harsh environments of outer space, be it solar radiation, cosmic radiation, or extreme weather events.
• These radiation hardened electronics are designed to work with precision, high-power density, high energy efficiency, at high travelling speeds, and under extreme vibrations, noise, stresses and shocks.
• The material requirements for designing and fabricating space grade electronics are different, compared with conventional consumer electronics used on Earth. Gallium nitride, silicon carbide, silicon, and silicon-germanium are among the materials of choice for space-grade electronics. These materials have higher thermal conductivity, power densities, and efficiency than conventional silicon-based semiconductor materials.

Strategic electronics

• A roadmap to achieve the $300-billion mark in electronics manufacturing and exports by 2026, unveiled by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) in January 2022, lists consumer electronics, mobile phones, information technology hardware, wearable devices, electric vehicles, and LED lighting.
• It also mentions ‘strategic electronics’— radars, security systems,terahertz wireless systems, micro and millimetre-wave sensors, and electromagnetic wave applications;and ‘defence electronics’ — components used in weapon systems, communication, command, control, computers, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, secured networks, aerial, submarine, and terrestrial platforms, among others. The roadmap aims to grow the ‘strategic electronics’ segment from $4 billion in 2020-21 to $12 billion by 2025-26; and the ‘defense electronics’ sector to $60 billion, with $40 billion coming from products and$20 billion from sub-assemblies and components.