N251-070 TITLE: Carbon-Carbon Structures with Embedded Electronics

OUSD (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Advanced Materials;Hypersonics;Microelectronics

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120-130, which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services, including export of sensitive technical data, or the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), 15 CFR Parts 730-774, which controls dual use items. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals (FNs), their country(ies) of origin, the type of visa or work permit possessed, and the statement of work (SOW) tasks intended for accomplishment by the FN(s) in accordance with the Announcement. Offerors are advised foreign nationals proposed to perform on this topic may be restricted due to the technical data under US Export Control Laws.

OBJECTIVE: Develop the capability to create precise modifications, rugged, and consistent high tolerance carbon-carbon (C/C) structures that allow for antennas or other electronics to be embedded into the C/C structure (no window or cover required) while able to operate in a hypersonic regime.

DESCRIPTION: Current C/C technology is very expensive, time consuming, and difficult to produce. These factors limit the ability to perform research and development for modification to current designs. New designs will allow for more advanced vehicles. The Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) Program desires the ability to create C/C structures with very strict tolerances that allow for different architectures, designs, or configurations of the thermal protection system in a hypersonic regime. This would require advanced manufacturing capabilities, facilities, and expertise. The CPS Program desires these capabilities for antennas and other electronic integration with large C/C structures. This capability will increase the effective volume in which electronics may reside. The ability to modularly part, mold, carve, form, or alter the C/C material in the manufacturing process is of interest. In the case of additive manufacturing capabilities, there is high risk of failure to withstand the shock, vibration, heat, and other environmental conditions of hypersonics. This new manufacturing capability shall provide significant proof of concept to meet these requirements. Note that when the C/C material is in close contact with other metals and semiconductors there is room for additional manufacturing demands such as thermal expansion effects, bonding/reactive effects, and warping of the metals at high temperature. The C/C manufacturing capability should have mitigations for these considerations along with all other capability considerations. This capability shall follow standard manufacturing readiness level (MRL) progression.

Work produced in Phase II may become classified. Note: The prospective contractor(s) must be U.S. owned and operated with no foreign influence as defined by 32 U.S.C. § 2004.20 et seq., National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual, unless acceptable mitigating procedures can and have been implemented and approved by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) formerly Defense Security Service (DSS). The selected contractor must be able to acquire and maintain a secret level facility and Personnel Security Clearances. This will allow contractor personnel to perform on advanced phases of this project as set forth by DCSA and SSP in order to gain access to classified information pertaining to the national defense of the United States and its allies; this will be an inherent requirement. The selected company will be required to safeguard classified material during the advanced phases of this contract IAW the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM), which can be found at Title 32, Part 2004.20 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

PHASE I: Demonstrate the feasibility of the C/C manufacturing capability to embed antennas or electronics within the structure while maintaining robust structural integrity of the entire system. Show the design considerations such as size of piece that can be constructed, thermal limits, shear limits, compression limits, tensile strength limits, etc. Compare these metrics to current state of the art C/C manufacturing capabilities and other C/C processes. Show the tradeoffs for this comparison. Demonstrate the feasible functionality of embedded antennas or electronics. Show the trade space between the process presented and current state of the art processes. For consideration of Phase II, there is significant emphasis on the ability to have a rigorous process flow for manufacturing that demonstrates the repeatability and reliability of the process. The Phase I Option, if exercised, will include the initial design specifications and capabilities description to build a prototype solution in Phase II.

PHASE II: The C/C antenna or electronic structure shall be tested with multiple environmental conditions. A successful demonstration shall be presented by the end of the Phase II. Unlike technology readiness levels (TRLs), MRL requires testing similar environments throughout Phase II.) The Technical Point Of Contact (TPOC) shall approve the validity of the test environments and that the test meets the requirements given in Phase II.

It is probable that the work under this effort will be classified under Phase II (see Description section for details).

PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Support the government in transitioning the technology for government use.

The transitioned product is expected to be able to support current and future weapon and space systems, as well as a wide range of other air, land, and sea-based systems. Commercial applications should be considered for transition (i.e., ocean exploration, space exploration, commercial autonomous vehicles, and mapping systems). The primary objective of this project is for transition to defense contractors for high speed weapons and space systems. To meet these needs, maturation and packaging of the technology to meet practical size, weight, and power constraints will be required. Extreme environments may require special considerations to conform to airframe shape and shielding from the aerothermal environment.

REFERENCES:

1. Paek, Sung Wook; Balasubramanian, Sivagaminathan and David Stupples. "Composites Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications: A Review." Materials 15.13, 2022, p. 4709.

2. Swaminathan, Saiganesh, et al. "Fiberwire: Embedding electronic function into 3d printed mechanically strong, lightweight carbon fiber composite objects." Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2019.

3. "National Industrial Security Program Executive Agent and Operating Manual (NISP), 32 U.S.C. § 2004.20 et seq. (1993)." https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-32/subtitle-B/chapter-XX/part-2004

KEYWORDS: Novel; Creative; Innovative; Advanced; Rugged; Hypersonic; Manufacturing; Additive Manufacturing; Carbon-Carbon; Carbon Structures: Embedded; Aerospace

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