Nebula Public Library

Time-to-Digital Converters (TDCs) are crucial elements in many sensor readout systems, such as time-of-flight sensors, laser ranging devices, LiDAR, ultrasonic sensors, particle detectors, etc. To the best of our knowledge, there is currently no rad-hard TDC component available on the market, which could meet the targeted specification defined in this project. The goal of this project is prototyping and lab testing of a radiation-hardened single-chip picosecond TDC in a commercial 65 nm CMOS technology.

Many types of science missions focus on Solar System targets with harsh thermal environments, such as Mars, the Moon, asteroids, comets, and other bodies at the fringes of the Solar System. Traditional spacecraft avionics rely on the storage of electrical energy in electrochemical systems (typically secondary batteries) for covering peak energy demands and periods where no electrical energy is generated (Lunar/Martian/cometary night, etc.).

Due to the harsh nature of outer space, stringent requirements and performances are required from space systems. Thanks to evolving environmental awareness and the building up of a knowledge base at ESA, we are becoming more wary of the environmental impact of space activities on Earth. Through the GreenSat project, ESA wants to evolve from the assessment to reduction of environmental impact through redesigning an existing satellite mission. The project allows ESA to check the feasibility of implementing ecodesign in the development of space missions.

In summary, this activity used simulated and analysed parameters for each component to define the requirements for each application. For the flight model, the most important parameters are power consumption, cost and mass of the components. The power consumption and mass of components are acquired from the datasheets. Since space qualification is needed for these components the cost estimation is a difficult task. For example, even for the passive component the price difference between non-qualified, qualifiable and qualified devices is rather high.