{"id":891029,"date":"2026-03-12T06:18:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T06:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/?p=891029"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:40:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T14:40:52","slug":"wafers-grown-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/","title":{"rendered":"Wafers grown in space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceForge has launched the National Microgravity Research Centre (NMRC), the terrestrial arm of its low-Earth-orbit manufacturing programme.<\/p><div class=\"elect-content\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"elect-2088620115\"><div id=\"x02\">\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> if ($(window).width() <= 768) { googletag.display('x02'); } <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>The Cardiff-based company is developing technologies to produce advanced materials in microgravity. It says the microgravity environment reduces the exposure to contaminants such as moisture, dust and gases, potentially resulting in up to 100-times fewer defects in semiconductor materials.<\/p><div class=\"elect-test\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"elect-1300879419\"><div id=\"DFP-EW-InRead1\">\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> if ($(window).width() > 768) { googletag.display('DFP-EW-InRead1'); } <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<BR>\r\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_880928\" style=\"width: 2570px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-880928\" class=\"wp-image-880928 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp\" alt=\"Wafers grown in space\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp 2560w, https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-300x225.webp 300w, https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-1024x768.webp 1024w, https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-768x576.webp 768w, https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-1536x1152.webp 1536w, https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-2048x1536.webp 2048w, https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-440x330.webp 440w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-880928\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceForge&#8217;s origami-inspired heat shield<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The proposal is to grow ingots in microgravity, which will have purer, more uniform crystals than those made on Earth.<\/p><div class=\"elect-post-content-2\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"elect-396210346\"><div id=\"DFP-EW-InRead1-Mobile\">\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> if ($(window).width() <= 768) { googletag.display('DFP-EW-InRead1-Mobile'); } <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>At the end of last year the company launched its micro-sized ForgeStar-1 satellite, equipped with a furnace that can reach 1,000\u00b0C, as part of its effort to manufacture materials in orbit.<\/p>\n<p>According to Space Forge, microgravity offers manufacturing conditions that differ significantly from those on Earth. As well as reducing contamination it can enable more uniform crystal growth.<\/p>\n<p>Materials initially produced in orbit will be brought back for scaleup at the Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials at Swansea University, where NMRC is based.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/market-sectors\/military-aerospace-electronics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">See all our Space content<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceForge has launched the National Microgravity Research Centre (NMRC), the terrestrial arm of its low-Earth-orbit manufacturing programme. The Cardiff-based company is developing technologies to produce advanced materials in microgravity. It &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":880928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12693,12658],"tags":[14343],"class_list":["post-891029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aerospace-electronics","category-research-news","tag-space"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Wafers grown in space | Electronics Weekly<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SpaceForge has launched the National Microgravity Research Centre (NMRC), the terrestrial arm of its low-Earth-orbit manufacturing programme. The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Wafers grown in space | Electronics Weekly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"SpaceForge has launched the National Microgravity Research Centre (NMRC), the terrestrial arm of its low-Earth-orbit manufacturing programme. The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElectronicsNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElectronicsNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Manners\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Manners\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2a780b9be8bba42fec1819c53ddcfefc\"},\"headline\":\"Wafers grown in space\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-12T06:18:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-17T14:40:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/\"},\"wordCount\":179,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Space\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Military\/Aerospace Electronics\",\"Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/\",\"name\":\"Wafers grown in space | Electronics Weekly\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-12T06:18:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-17T14:40:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2a780b9be8bba42fec1819c53ddcfefc\"},\"description\":\"SpaceForge has launched the National Microgravity Research Centre (NMRC), the terrestrial arm of its low-Earth-orbit manufacturing programme. The\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1920,\"caption\":\"SpaceForge's origami-inspired heat sheild\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wafers grown in space\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/\",\"name\":\"Electronics Weekly\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2a780b9be8bba42fec1819c53ddcfefc\",\"name\":\"David Manners\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a05637694a85fd60bfb196027ecc4292c042bb26582d0b0f63bda20f8134e7e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a05637694a85fd60bfb196027ecc4292c042bb26582d0b0f63bda20f8134e7e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a05637694a85fd60bfb196027ecc4292c042bb26582d0b0f63bda20f8134e7e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Manners\"},\"description\":\"David Manners has more than forty-years experience writing about the electronics industry, its major trends and leading players. As well as writing business, components and research news, he is the author of the site's most popular blog, Mannerisms. This features series of posts such as Fables, Markets, Shenanigans, and Memory Lanes, across a wide range of topics.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/author\/david-manners\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wafers grown in space | Electronics Weekly","description":"SpaceForge has launched the National Microgravity Research Centre (NMRC), the terrestrial arm of its low-Earth-orbit manufacturing programme. The","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Wafers grown in space | Electronics Weekly","twitter_description":"SpaceForge has launched the National Microgravity Research Centre (NMRC), the terrestrial arm of its low-Earth-orbit manufacturing programme. The","twitter_image":"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp","twitter_creator":"@ElectronicsNews","twitter_site":"@ElectronicsNews","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Manners","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/"},"author":{"name":"David Manners","@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2a780b9be8bba42fec1819c53ddcfefc"},"headline":"Wafers grown in space","datePublished":"2026-03-12T06:18:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-17T14:40:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/"},"wordCount":179,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp","keywords":["Space"],"articleSection":["Military\/Aerospace Electronics","Research"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/","url":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/","name":"Wafers grown in space | Electronics Weekly","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp","datePublished":"2026-03-12T06:18:23+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-17T14:40:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2a780b9be8bba42fec1819c53ddcfefc"},"description":"SpaceForge has launched the National Microgravity Research Centre (NMRC), the terrestrial arm of its low-Earth-orbit manufacturing programme. The","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/19125323\/20250918_103145-scaled.webp","width":2560,"height":1920,"caption":"SpaceForge's origami-inspired heat sheild"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/news\/research-news\/wafers-grown-in-space-2026-03\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wafers grown in space"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/","name":"Electronics Weekly","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2a780b9be8bba42fec1819c53ddcfefc","name":"David Manners","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a05637694a85fd60bfb196027ecc4292c042bb26582d0b0f63bda20f8134e7e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a05637694a85fd60bfb196027ecc4292c042bb26582d0b0f63bda20f8134e7e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a05637694a85fd60bfb196027ecc4292c042bb26582d0b0f63bda20f8134e7e4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"David Manners"},"description":"David Manners has more than forty-years experience writing about the electronics industry, its major trends and leading players. As well as writing business, components and research news, he is the author of the site's most popular blog, Mannerisms. This features series of posts such as Fables, Markets, Shenanigans, and Memory Lanes, across a wide range of topics.","url":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/author\/david-manners\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891029"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":891144,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891029\/revisions\/891144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.electronicsweekly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}