Levion Materials to Study Growing Semiconductor Crystals in Orbit

Feasibility study under an ESA contract examines whether space-grown crystals can ease a bottleneck in telluride materials for radiation detection and infrared sensing

MUNICH, 29.10.2026 - Levion Materials, the advanced materials venture of Starflight Dynamics GmbH, is launching HQSemis, a feasibility study into commercial crystal growth in orbit. The study is carried out under a contract with the European Space Agency’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) team, supported by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

On Earth, gravity never switches off. It drives convection, sedimentation and buoyancy effects that disturb molten material as crystals form, limiting the size and quality achievable for high-performance semiconductor substrates. In orbit, those forces largely disappear. Levion’s Crystal Growth Furnace is designed to exploit that difference, with an initial focus on telluride compounds used in X-ray and gamma-ray detectors for medical imaging, security screening and nuclear monitoring, and in infrared detectors for Earth observation and defence.

Over nine months, HQSemis will test whether this translates into a viable service: validating demand with industrial customers in the telluride materials market, confirming the technical feasibility of the furnace and its orbital operation, and building the commercial case for a pay-per-batch “crystal growth as a service” model.

“HQSemis is built on a year of intensive preparation by our team,” said Tina Sorgenfrei, Chief Materials Scientist at Levion Materials. “It enables us to systematically investigate whether microgravity crystal growth can deliver the strategically important semiconductor materials industry needs.”

About Levion Materials

Levion Materials is the advanced materials venture of Starflight Dynamics GmbH, dedicated to crystal growth in microgravity. The team combines microgravity R&D expertise with aerospace engineering and commercialization experience, and is working towards its first in-space validation mission, to test the growth process ahead of larger orbital campaigns.

Media contact: Levion Materials Media Team | lab@levion-materials.com

About ESA BASS

A part of ESA’s ACCESS programme, ESA Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) supports companies in developing commercial services that use space, offering zero-equity funding and technical guidance. Its Commercial Applications enabled by Space Environments (CASE) call for proposals focuses on services enabled by microgravity and other space environments.

Media contact: marcom-editorial@esa.int