Post-layout verification of satellite and spacecraft external sub-system interfaces

Satellites contain many interconnected sub-systems to receive and transmit data, as well as commands: as on-board processing and sensors become faster and more complex, all external interfaces need to be verified before delivering hardware to operators.

Earth-Observation satellites use optical, LIDAR and SAR sensors, and these external interfaces are increasingly becoming more complex, higher bandwidth, requiring a mixture of I/O formats, often realised using long flexible PCBs with multiple stacks and different dielectrics, as well as high-density, matched-impedance connectors. Each of these impacts signal integrity and performance, and post-layout verification is required to ensure your design interfaces meet your customer’s needs before you actually build expensive avionics hardware.

Space Situational Awareness for ISAM applications such as space debris identification and retrieval, and space-domain awareness for object classification and potential threat assessment, use optical, LIDAR and SAR sensors for image recognition, orbit determination and rendezvous and proximity operations.

The above satellite applications require complex, external interfaces and as an OEM, how do you ensure these deliver the required performance to realise the end application and allow operators to achieve their mission aspirations.

This presentation will share the use of Hyperlynx Boardsim, Hyperlynx Touchstone and post-layout batch verification to validate the performance of satellite and spacecraft external interfaces before building costly sub-systems.