Event Date
Dr. Adrian Tang
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
In this presentation Adrian will discuss the infusion of CMOS system-on-chip (SoC) technology into NASA-JPL instrumentation for current and future Astronomy, Earth science, and planetary science investigations. The talk will describe how the adoption of SoC technology has enabled a drastic reduction in the size, mass, and power consumption of space instruments allowing them to be carried on smaller platforms, while also enabling entirely new science investigations through the co-integration of mm-wave/THz and DSP elements into single chip devices. Adrian will discuss the fundamental design challenges that these SoCs face in delivering the level of fidelity required for NASA’s science investigations including both sensitivity and long-term stability (Allan variance) in radiometers and high dynamic range in radar sensing. Several recently developed SoC based science instruments will be presented including: (1) The ReckTangLE mission, which carried a CMOS 183 GHz emission spectrometer and flew on a 2019 sub-orbital mission investigating stratospheric water vapor on Earth, (2) the WHATSUP 500-600 GHz spectrometer, which measures isotopic ratios of water at Europa, Titan, and Enceladus to better understand the origins of water in our solar system, (3) the Airborne Scanning Microwave Limb Sounder (ASMLS), a 340 GHz limb-sounder mission flown aboard the NASA ER-2 aircraft, (4) the SoC based ground penetrating radar (GPR) for Mars Science Helicopter that explores subsurface deposits of ice at the Martian poles to be better understand the origins of water and ice on the red planet, (5) the NASA CMOS Enhanced MetaSurface Radar mission monitoring the snowpack water content in the southwestern USA to provide the western states accurate water resource planning during periods of prolonged drought, (6) the NASA Spec-Chip instrument which explores comets and asteroids, analyzing the gasses trapped within their icy surfaces when the solar system first formed, giving us a glimpse into our cosmic origins.
Bio
Adrian is a JPL principal engineer and has over 25 years of CMOS/SiGe system-on-chip (SoC) development experience. He currently directs the space system-on-chip laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory which develops a wide range of CMOS SoCs for exploration of Earth, the solar system, and space. These SoCs are widely deployed across NASA’s spaceborne, airborne, and surface mission portfolios. Adrian has served as a principal or co-principal investigator on over 30 NASA science and technology programs and served as a principal investigator and mission manager on 3 NASA sub-orbital missions. Adrian has authored over 160 IEEE articles in the areas of radar and mm-wave/THz remote sensing and was recently awarded the 2023 IEEE region 6 outstanding engineer award, the 2023 NASA exceptional achievement medal and was elevated to IEEE Fellow in 2025.