Imagine a microchip on a satellite in low Earth orbit. Temperatures swing from minus 85 degrees Fahrenheit to over 250 F. In one year, it is bombarded with over 100 times the radiation dose the average person experiences naturally on Earth. And if it needs new parts, well, it will have to wait a decade or so. At Arizona State University, researchers and students in the Extreme Environments Lab test semiconductor technologies under some of the harshest conditions. The lab serves the Southwest Advanced Prototyping, or SWAP, Hub, supporting government and industry partners in designing technologies that are reliable in demanding settings. This capability is critical across a wide range of applications — from space stations and missile defense systems to geothermal energy and oil exploration equipment deep underground. It also supports radiation therapy, nuclear energy systems and advanced scientific tools such as quantum computers. ASU's SWAP Hub is part of the Department of Defense’s Microelectronics Commons. It is the only regional hub with comprehensive infrastructure for testing electronics in extreme temperature and radiation environments. By involving students at every stage, the lab helps them gain in-demand skills and hands-on experience that translate directly to career opportunities. What happens during extreme environment testing? “Imagine equipment in space. You can't replace parts easily. Things need to last for 10 to 20 years up there under extreme conditions,” says Hugh Barnaby, who leads extreme environment reliability efforts in the SWAP Hub. That reality underscores why developers want to ensure their technologies perform as intended. “There are different classifications for specifying whether these applications can work in certain environments. For us in SWAP Hub, we are working with the extreme environment specifications, which is way outside of the bounds of even military specifications in terms of temperature operation,” says Barnaby, who is also