G. Rodrigue and G. Vandentop
Texas A & M Semiconductor Institute, Colorado, United States
Keywords: Quantum, AI, Secure Communications
Decades of experimental evidence demonstrate that microgravity fundamentally alters the physics of crystal growth. By suppressing buoyancy‑driven convection, sedimentation, and gravity‑coupled thermal transport, microgravity shifts crystal growth into a diffusion‑dominated regime that reduces defect incorporation, improves compositional uniformity, and stabilizes growth interfaces. These effects are especially pronounced for bulk, multicomponent, and wide‑bandgap semiconductors whose terrestrial manufacturing is intrinsically limited by gravity‑driven transport instabilities. From an economic perspective, low‑Earth‑orbit (LEO) manufacturing is not a substitute for terrestrial fabs or a pathway to bulk production in space. Instead, it represents a high‑leverage industrial capability that unlocks step‑function improvements in material quality for a narrow set of defect‑limited materials. These improvements propagate downstream into higher yield, improved reliability, reduced system cost, lower supply‑chain risk, and the creation of new high‑performance markets on Earth. This analysis concludes that GaN and SiC represent the highest‑leverage near‑term opportunities for LEO manufacturing, followed by selected III–V compounds and electronic‑grade diamond for high‑value defense, space, energy, and quantum applications. Two‑dimensional materials are best positioned as longer‑term, low‑volume, capability‑driven targets rather than primary production outputs.