Founded by former OpenAI employee Ashley Pilipiszyn, Besxar decided to manufacture key materials for advanced semiconductors in orbit to take advantage of the vacuum of space. In this regard, the startup has help from SpaceX.
Image source: besxar.com
Building semiconductor facilities on Earth is difficult and expensive because it requires sealed “clean rooms.” Such locations are designed to protect products from microscopic dust and contaminants that could damage wafers during the manufacturing process. Pilypyshyn believes a new generation of rockets could be a replacement for such infrastructure; the startup has attracted nearly $14 million in investment to make the idea a reality.
The first two “fabships” – small containers used to transport and test semiconductor materials in orbit – set off in July as part of SpaceX’s Starlink mission. Their mission is to demonstrate that the container can withstand launch, protect the sample wafers from contamination, and ensure they are in contact with the vacuum of space. Besxar successfully completed these missions despite a malfunction in the flight data recording system of one of the containers – the cause of the accident is currently under investigation.
“Compared to the remaining wafers on Earth, the samples in space are the cleanest and contain the smallest number of solid particles, which for us is an excellent result in terms of scaling up production”– Ms. Pilipishin told Source TechCrunch. Over the next two years, Besxar plans to refine its development to eventually install larger production facilities on the giant next-generation SpaceX Starship rocket, which is not yet complete. Pylypyshyn first approached SpaceX three years ago to discuss the possibility of purchasing Starship launch seats, but the startup initially decided to stick with the Falcon 9 to reduce the risks associated with the new technology. In subsequent stages, operations such as heating the plate, applying one material and then two materials are performed on it.
With production up and running, Besxar hopes to supply wafers to leading chipmakers for advanced power management chips in data centers, robotics and electric vehicles. United Semiconductor and Space Forge are also developing orbital semiconductor production technology – each still needs to solve the problem of returning large quantities of finished products to Earth. Besxar intends to eventually increase output to hundreds or thousands of wafers per installation, but this will require cheap rockets – SpaceX could commission Starship, or Rocket Lab and Stoke Space to develop new models. “We believe the transportation infrastructure is developed enough so we can solve application problems. We can work directly on production and get our products to Earth as quickly as possible to get to market.”– said Ashley Pilipishin.
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