RKS Development will increase reliability and life of Russian satellites

Experts holding “Russian Space Systems” (RCC, is a state corporation “Roscosmos”) completed work on the creation of radiation-resistant solid-state relays. Their use will significantly increase the reliability and increase the service life of the onboard equipment while reducing its weight and dimensions.

The new solid-state relays are a specialized circuit of eight crystals of power transistors that act as electronic “switches” that control the supply of input voltage to satellite devices. The crystals are located on a proprietary aluminum nitride substrate with overgrown vias and are connected in series-parallel manner. This connection makes it possible to reliably switch the voltage even in the event of failure of several “switches” as a result of external influences and degradation of components. This provides the highest level of resiliency.

Alexei Kostin, head of the department for development of onboard secondary power supplies: “The creation of such relays is a new step in ensuring the reliability of space equipment. The device is made in a sealed radiation-resistant case with an area of ​​only 400 mm2, which is 2.5 times less than the best imported one and 4 times less than domestic counterparts that implement a similar switching scheme. In this case, the cost of our products are several times lower than any analogues in the world through the use of a unique assembly technology based on the housing board of aluminum nitride. » Div>

A unique feature of the product – no add-docking, hull structures and external connection terminals and installation is done by the board surface mount technology. The topology of the board allowed as compact arrange transistors and controls are located in the analogs is of relays on a single circuit board inside the housing. In the future, it is planned to reduce the size of the product by half due to the use of a unique technology for mounting power transistors on top of each other, which is at the final stage of development at RKS. It is also planned to use crystals “keys” developed by the holding.

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