SpaceWire Backplane

Trade-off of SpaceWire Backplane Architectures, specification and selection of suitable connectors.

The SpaceWire physical layer as defined in ECSS-E-50-12A is a point to point cable connection. This is most suitable for the data link between equipment's. With the success of SpaceWire it is also used more and more to connect different boards within the same box. For this type of use typically a connection via the backplane would be used. So far there is no standardised solution for SpaceWire connections over the backplane defined. In this activity the different possible architectures of active and passive backplanes shall be traded-off. A suitable, impedance matched backplane connector shall be found by surveying existing connectors for terrestrial applications. The candidate connector for terrestrial applications will need modification to the design to conform to requirements of the SpW Backplane and use of space qualified materials. As a last step the connector shall undergo a set of selected qualification tests. A SpaceWire Backplane specification shall be defined that can be used as input for the backplane standardisation work.