EEE Parts Engineering and Product Assurance in Space Missions
From ‘Classic Space’ to NewSpace, the Electrical, Electronic and Electromechanical (EEE) Parts Engineering and Product Assurance activities are transversal disciplines across the complete cycle of design and implementation of space units. Check out how ALTER Technology, with more than 25 years of experience in the space sector, can help you from the earliest stages of your design/idea, moving to the multiple milestones and reviews (PDR, CDR, MRR, TMR…) to finally reach success during the initial stage of equipment to final delivery for integration
From CubeSats to the most demanding telecom payloads or scientific missions, all designs are based on elementary bricks which need to be carefully selected, procured and tested according to the product assurance requirements of each mission. Far from simple, the designs are evolving to include complex devices (from FPGAs or hybrids), more and more RF and optical devices, and infinitum passive devices.
Moreover, the space market is no longer led exclusively by national space agencies and hundreds of medium and small companies all over the world are pushing with innovative solutions based on COTS (Commercial-off-the-shelf) parts.
Parallelly, multiple reviews at EEE, radiation and material are necessary to ensure the design follows the product assurance criteria established for the mission. This involves checking an extensive amount of documentation to ensure the quality requirements are followed and to act accordingly when these are met (NCR, NRB, deviation, RFD, RFW, RIDs, etc)
ALTER as cornerstone in EEE and Product Assurance scenario: The team of Senior EEE parts and PA engineers at ALTER will guide and help your team to understand the key drivers for the selection of the most suitable parts for your design, based on the deep knowledge of space market as well as the main standards used in Europe (ECSS-Q-ST-60s), US (NASA GSFC, DLA MIL-PRFs and QPL/QMLs) and commercial market (AEC-Q, …).
Similarly, our PA engineers have extensive experience in EEE, materials, process and radiation, allowing us to drive or support you during reviews at any project stage with the prime contractors.
Compliance with ESA, NASA, DLA and International Standards
Declared Component List Support
Definition of the EEE parts to be used in a design is usually managed through the so-called Declared Component List (DCL) or Bill or Materials (BoM). Format and content of these documents are essential for the approval and traceability of the designs, allowing users and prime contractors a proper tracking of the components, families, technologies and test to be performed on the EEE parts.
From the creation of preliminary DCL to consolidated reviews of these important documents, ALTER engineering team will guide you from the very first iteration to the last review and approval (in case of Parts Control Boards).
Moreover, the DCL content is a live document and will progress across the different stages and discussions to be held during the project execution. As example:
- Before PDR: At this stage, the DCL content is not frozen and is still very much subjected to changes in the design
- PDR documentation: DCL is still preliminary, but the content should contain all the inputs from previous discussions. The information related to radiation and qualification, among others, could be preliminary, but the future changes will need to be properly traced
- CDR: For Consolidated Design review, the approval of EEE parts and the maturity of DCL are essential. Having all the documentation to support the approval for each component during Parts Control Boards (PCB) will require a dedicated team of engineers understanding how to manage the approval
Upgrade and Downgrade of Space and Industrial Designs / DCL
Already have a design (DCL/BoM) and you want to downgrade it by using lower cost components? Or in the contrary, do you want to explore how your industrial design could be converted for a LEO/GEO mission?
ALTER engineering team specialises in providing multiple alternatives based on the product assurance requirements for each mission, finding the most suitable solutions in terms of performance and cost. Especially with the irruption of NewSpace companies and relatively ‘mass production’ from constellations, two main scenarios have emerged linked to this activity of EEE and product assurance:
Downgrade of existing Space designs
moving from consolidated Space class 1 concepts to commercial or automotive-grade components with a strong cost driver. This activity usually involves an intensive search for COTS devices with radiation data coming from other missions, technical papers and presentations.
Upgrade of commercial and industrial designs
with the target of including these designs in space proposals. The interest of universities and small/medium-sized companies with very innovative designs in the NewSpace sectors involves the review of their parts list in order to make them suitable to the harsh space requirements.
In both cases, key topics like radiation, qualification status, alternatives, reliability data and potential additional test are the key drivers for this upgrade/downgrade exercise that ALTER has been performing for more than 35 years.
EEE parts and radiation training. Our knowledge in your hands
Based on the cumulated experience in most of the European Space missions for the last 35 years, ALTER has decided to bring this expertise to those users and companies willing to understand further the EEE parts engineering, including parts selection, quality assessment, radiation topics and procurement scenarios.
As an example of excellence, ALTER has been providing 2021 a dedicated training course to European participants through ESA Learning Hub (EEE components | ESA Learning Hub), allowing newcomers and new companies in space to understand the basics on EEE parts engineering.
Beyond this, ALTER technology has developed a set of courses aimed to provide proper training over the most common EEE parts engineering topics. Multiple universities and small companies starting in the space sector are using ALTER’s expertise to bring the necessary knowledge to their own engineering and procurement teams.
Supporting Manufacturers Towards Space Qualification
The path to becoming a European Qualified manufacturer is not easy and the requirements to become in this exclusive list is sometimes not well understood by manufacturers who are not devoted for space applications.
In this field, ALTER is contributing to boost the European space ecosystem by providing support to those EEE parts manufacturers interested in considering the space applications for their products. Guidance from the early stage of initial evaluation and audits to the execution of the most demanding test following the specifications, ALTER experience is recognised by international players as a guarantee of independence for the EEE engineering service.
As paradigm for this EEE support, it shall be noted ALTER is providing consultancy service to the German Aerospace Center (DLR – Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) for multiple activities including the introduction of new German companies in the Space ecosystem as well as guide them through the necessary steps to become a qualified manufacturer for space applications, including the necessary audits and visits to manufacturers.
Radiation as key element in Space
Because of the unique environment in space, the selection and testing of EEE parts for space design must integrate the radiation criteria. ALTER has a unique position in this field that allow us to support the user’s need from the early definition of radiation requirements, parts selection and radiation analysis to the final execution in case TID, TNID or SEE test are necessary
Our expertise in radiation effects for Total Ionizing dose (TID), Total Non-Ionizing dose TNID (Displacement Damage) and Single Event Effects (SEE) testing ensures accurate and reliable results that conform to industry standards, best practices, and provide our customers with detailed information on the radiation tolerance of their components.
These testing capabilities are now complemented with enhanced capabilities for the determination of radiation environment and radiation analysis by using software like OMERE, CREME96, FLUKA or FASTRAD, allowing the user to have a single partner for the complete radiation sequence in a space project.
Radiation Analysis and Testing Capabilities
ALTER has developed the capabilities to perform the necessary analysis and calculations required for the multiple reviews:
- Calculation of radiation environment and radiation analysis using,
- OMERE (TRAD Software)
- CREME96
- SPENVIS
- FASTRAD ® (TRAD Software). Ray-tracing (Reverse and Forward Montecarlo)
- Others: FLUKA, SRIM, EXPACS
- Standard Outputs required by users:
- TID and TNID Dose Septh Curves, GCR and Solar Flare Heavy Ion Environments, Solar Flare Proton Environments, etc
- Radiation Design Margins, SEE rate calculation and shielding analysis
Your Partner for Product Assurance in Space Activities
Product Assurance related to space design/applications can be an important challenge for NewSpace companies, not aware of the multiple standards available and need to focus on their core activities (design) without jeopardising the review and acceptance imposed by prime contractors. Additionally, well-established and even big players like Airbus, OHB or Thales are relying on ALTER’s product Assurance support due to overload and lack of skilled manpower. ALTER can provide support and guide you through:
- Support to meetings between end customer and prime contractors, assessing the documentation to be delivered on each phase of the program
- Assessment of tailoring of engineering and quality standards, especially for new space, IOD and cubesat missions.
- Participation from the initial pre-development phase to the last delivery milestones
- Vast experience on EQSR, TRL assessment, PDR, CDR, MRR, MRB, TRR, TRB, audits and inspections
- EEE parts engineering, radiation, materials, dependability and RAMS support in the different phases
- From traditional scheme missions based on ECSS-M-ST-10C milestones to Agile methodologies for IOD, cubesats and university developments.
Manuel Morales Domínguez
Manuel has over 15 years of experience in the space industry, specialising in EEE components engineering. He has been involved in a wide range of international projects, with a strong focus on European space missions such as JUICE, Euclid, MTG, and BepiColombo. Deeply interested in emerging technologies, he explores their compatibility with both traditional and NewSpace business models.
