Cobham features PDMs for space applications in product showcase at NSREC
NewsJuly 19, 2017
NEW ORLEANS, La. Cobham officials showcased a series of products at this year?s Nuclear Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC).
Cobham's Power Distribution Modules (PDMs) offer end-to-end efficiency from the satellite bus (22 - 100V) down to the point of load. Engineers designed the PDMs as a two-stage solution that leverage resonant mode control, zero-voltage/zero-current switching, chip on board manufacturing, planar magnetics, proprietary FETs, controllers and drivers to provide greater than 50W of power at more than 83 percent efficiency for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) or application specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
The modules are also radiation hardened to meet 50 krad(Si) TID and SEL immunity up to 80 MeV-cm2/mg. The PDMs are a family of Input Regulator Modules (IRM) and Isolated Point of Load Modules (iPOL) that together make up a power conversion system.
The IRM provides a regulated intermediate voltage to the iPOL which can be set to adjust to load condition by utilizing the adaptive loop feature between the IRM and iPOL. The iPOLs are isolated, unregulated, DC/DC converters that divide down the intermediate bus voltage, provided by the IRM, by a constant k-factor. These PDMs can generate an adjustable output voltage as low as 0.65V to meet the core voltage requirements of the latest FPGAs and ASICs. Also, these modules are specified to operate from -40°C to +125°C and QML Class L MIL-PRF-38534 qualification is pending.
Cobham on Iridium NEXT
Thales Alenia Space officials selected Cobham Gaisler’s LEON3 fault-tolerant microprocessor Intellectual Property (IP) core as the processor in the EPICA-NEXT System-on-Chip (SoC) device that is used in the redundant Platform Computer (PFC) in each one of the Iridium NEXT satellites.
Cobham RadHard microelectronics contributing to Iridium NEXT include power supply solutions, FPGA, LEON microprocessors and intellectual property, SpaceWire transceivers, 1553 transceivers, NOR flash and SDRAM memories, clock drivers, and MSI Logic. Additionally, four separate ASICs perform control and data switching for various aspects of Iridium NEXT.
Cobham on GOES-R
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series (GOES-R) is considered nation’s next generation of geostationary weather satellites. According to the mission overview of the GOES-R site, it will improve the observation and detection of environmental phenomena, which can affect public safety, protection of property, as well as the nation’s economic health and prosperity.
Cobham RadHard microelectronics were also selected for the GOES-R mission in including: Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) products, Medium Scale Integration (MSI) logics, clock management products, memory products such as Programmable Read-Only Memories (PROM), and SpaceWire 4-port Routers. The company’s Voltage Regulators also played a role in Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics’ (LASP) EXIS instrument.
