HOUSTON, TEXAS, Aug 20, '24 — MicroSilicon completes the final stage of a DOE sponsored research project that had previously been awarded the 2021 ADIPEC award for Breakthrough Research.

In 2020, MicroSilicon had been selected to join a DOE-sponsored consortium to develop a revolutionary way to power and communicate with microchips that were deployed during the fracturing process. The University of Kansas led the effort, EOG provided support for well construction, UCLA provided the chips to be deployed, and MicroSilion provided the downhole tool that would prove the validity of the overall concept. MicroSilicon had been chosen because of the strength of its R&E team in building high frequency electronics and experience in downhole oilfield sensing. In this application, the transmitter was 40MHz and the signal to be received was 13MHz.

The deployed tool worked flawlessly and was able to activate a number of chips that were embedded inside fractures. From the data, the Kansas team were then able to provide fracture information to the operator. The next stage of the project will be to extend the range of communication, add more sensing capabilities to the chips and provide real-time telemetry back to the surface on wireline cable.