We have had the tremendous opportunity to work with some of the most advanced aerospace manufacturers on the planet. These companies are developing game-changing devices that are required to function with zero faults in the most demanding conditions electronic products will ever have to be subjected to—space.
The desire to lower the cost to space has long been a dream since the development of the Space Shuttle—the first semi-reusable spacecraft. However, with 2.5 million parts, 230 miles of wire, over 1000 plumbing valves, 1440 circuit breakers, and 27,000 thermal tiles and blankets, the sheer complexity of the shuttle kept the program from achieving its true mission. Since the shuttle’s retirement, a new era of space exploration has come to fruition led by the private sector. Private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin have been developing ingenious technologies and breakthroughs in reusability and flexibility to achieve a goal the shuttle program ultimately fell short of—making space flight affordable.
One of our most recent projects was to help develop some of the most flexible, radiation-hardened, hermetic DC-DC converters for space applications. These space-ready converters were designed to provide customers with an off-the-shelf product that can be used in a wide range of space applications, all in the effort to continue to drive down the cost to space.
To develop a space product with unprecedented flexibility, engineers first needed to design a product that could hold up to the riggers to space. This meant the products had to handle a tremendous amount of radiation—up to 200 krad (10-200x the typical range of ordinary electronics)! They also needed to withstand an incredible range of operating temperatures and survive the beating they would take during the launch phase and all with zero failures. These requirements alone are a massive challenge for even the most seasoned engineers. However, this was just the beginning. Next, the products needed to be incredibly flexible to take advantage of mass production (the key ingredient in making more affordable parts). This meant the converters needed to have configurable under-voltage protection and filter inputs, have a wide range of input voltages from 18-120v, include multiple outputs, provide no-load protection, and can be used in an open frame or enclosed configuration (not to mention, they needed to be 100% reliable). Additionally, if the customer needed something even more configurable, the solution also needed to be easily customizable if a customer required more than what was initially designed. In other words, our customer was developing a truly remarkable line of products.
What we love most about complex projects is that we get to work alongside our customers and lend a hand towards coming up with creative solutions, and in some cases, we get the opportunity to play a small part in industry-changing innovations.
