Technologies portfolio
High-performance on-board instrument computer and SDR for small satellites
High-performance and flexible on-board data handler
The miniaturisation, and power consumption reduction of present electronics allows the integration of high performance devices in a very small volume. In this sense, reconfigurable System On Chip (SoC) provides the capacity to adapt the hardware to different application needs by just changing the associated firmware.
The IEEC has designed a high-performance on-board data handler. This technology is oriented to be used in small satellites and with a high degree of flexibility to be adapted to different payloads and missions.
The design is based on three Hardware subsystems that can be combined depending on the ultimate use. The first one is a high-performance computer (OBDH) based on a SoC from Xilinx with 4 ARM cores of 64 bits (2 high performance and 2 low latency) with a FPGA to process high amounts of data on real time and on board. It can be used, for example, to implement high advanced communications algorithms, image processing for detecting objects, data compression or other Earth Observations (EO) applications. The second element is a software defined radio module (SDR) combined with the OBDH. It can receive and transmit RF signals in the frequency range of 70 MHz to 6 GHz with 2+2 simultaneous channels (TX+RX). The high flexibility of this module lies in the connection with the FPGA of the OBDH to digitally implement different applications that range from communication protocols, GNSS receivers, passive and active radar, radiometry for EO, etc. A high speed interface for a camera (Camera Link or USB2.0) also allows using optical instrumentation. The third element is an on-board computer (OBC) with a high reliability and tolerance to radiation that supervises and gives support to the other two subsystems. It can be used also as the main computer of the satellite. The volume required for the whole system is a half unit of a Cubesat.
The embedded Software for all these subsystems is critical and has been developed by scientists and engineers with high experience on critical software for payload computers in other space missions developed at the IEEC. The core SW for the OBC and OBDH are based on an adapted implementation of LINUX that guarantees robustness and reliability but at the same time is compatible with a high amount of public and standard libraries for space uses.