Space electronics is a large and important part of the supply chain and it is an area that sees a lot of change in the marketplace on a regular basis.
Many companies have adapted terrestrial electronics for use in space, accounting for radiation effects and ensuring more robust circuit construction that can survive both the vibrational impacts of launch and the the thermal extremes in orbit.
There are also many components available that have been custom-designed for space applications and are now being commercialized to the wider market. Such components are usually grouped as the term electrical and electronic equipment (EEE).
This supply chain hub for space electronics brings together advice and resources for electronics engineers looking to build the next generation of missions, along with links to specific categories of components on the satsearch platform.
Assessing the supply chain efficiently
It’s important to remember to cast a wide net when searching for suitable components. Many companies have now successfully adapted terrestrial electronics to space, bringing new opportunities to use lighter, more powerful, and more versatile components.
For example, Texas Instruments has qualified plastic packaging semiconductors for space applications, to a new industry standard, enabling faster production times and more flexible development compared with ceramics.
At the engineer’s level, electronic component procurement can face the typical issues that all space purchases have to account for; e.g. NDAs, uncertain heritage, access to qualification data, and an opaque supply chain that is hard to
And when volumes are higher – for scaling up manufacturing – supply chain managers are also faced with additional challenges around compliance, regulations, assessing sources, and more.
To help with this challenge, satsearch is bringing the electronic components supply chain for space onto our platform to speed up and simplify procurement.
You can find information on thousands of individual components at the links below today and we also have connections with suppliers right across the global supply chain, to help find you anything needed to keep your mission program running.
Before taking a look at the supply chain today, first here’s some guidance on how to select the best electronic components for your needs.
Selecting components to meet your goals
Electronics selection should, of course, be driven not by parts availability or even by solving immediate problems, but by the wider engineering goals. For example, electronic components for use in the satellite communication system should be chosen according to end-user applications and service expectations, with spare capacity for scaling up, rather than what is available from existing suppliers.
There can lead to seemingly straightforward design choices having large knock-on impacts for upstream components. For example, a decision to shift from simple RF fixed antennas to a phased array system will require a lot of re-architecting the electronics setup to account for different data, control, and power requirements.
It is also important to operate with open feedback loops in the team so such changes, arising as a result of changing components, can be exploited (or mitigated) elsewhere in the overall system.
This can be thought of as bottom-up feedback into the overall system of systems, and it requires both a culture and a structured practice of transparent communication in the team.
Electronic components also have a key part to play in the health monitoring of a satellite or space system too, which should be taking into account when choosing the best option for your needs.
Implementing effective fault detection and protection protocols is vital to ensuring successful operation, and must be handled in different subsystems in different ways.
Component degradation or failure will depend on the application, subsystem, and mission. The same component used in different ways across multiple systems will be stressed and affected differently, possibly resulting in a failure in one area with perfect operation in another.
In addition, while it may be possible to use LEO-suitable components in higher radiation environments, this should be thoroughly tested first.
Ultimately, the aim is to optimize risk, quality, and reliability – but to do so in an efficient way. And that is where accurate and up-to-date supply chain information plays such an important role.
The main categories of electronic components for space
Reducing power consumption
One of the most important criteria for an electronic component used in space is the power rating.
Satellites and spacecraft are more power-hungry than ever, with deployables, system size, payload power, and increased computing requirements all driving larger power budgets in missions today.
While the power requirements of a space system are always driven mainly by the needs of the primary payloads and subsystems on board, it is possible to make significant cumulative power savings by tackling the issue at the component and circuit level.
With simple component changes and alternate circuit setups, incremental power tree enhancements across the major operational areas can add up to significant savings. So ensure this is factored in when choosing components for space systems.
Common challenges for space electronics
Electronic components for space can face major issues due to the bombardment of heavy ions in orbit. These cause two main types of problem
- Total ionizing dose (TID) – dependent on orbit and mission duration
- Single-event effects (SEE) – dependent on orbit
The development of components for different orbital domains has a number of impacts that space electronics engineers should consider, for example:
- Engineers should ensure they get the highest cost-to-performance for electronic components for their target domain and application, making meaningful contributions to the overall system,
- Components should be thoroughly, but efficiently, qualified in order to improve, simplify, and speed up mission integration,
- The entire electronics value chain, from wafer fab to final assembly, has an impact on risk and quality of the final component – for example; radiation hardness can vary between wafer lots despite all parameters staying the same, and
- With up-screened and new rad-hard parts, there is potential to adapting and utilize commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) as long as they are thoroughly tested.
