Specialists of the Russian space systems holding company (RKS, part of the Roscosmos state Corporation») we have completed work on creating radiation-resistant solid-state relays. Their use will significantly increase the reliability and service life of on-Board equipment while reducing its weight and size indicators, the press service of the holding said.
The new solid-state relays are a specialized circuit consisting of eight power transistor crystals that function as electronic "keys" that control the input voltage supply to the satellite devices. The crystals are located on a substrate of aluminum nitride of their own design with overgrown transition holes and are connected to each other in a series-parallel scheme. This connection guarantees that the voltage can be switched even if several "keys" fail as a result of external influences and component degradation. This provides the highest level of fault tolerance.
"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 and 4 times less than domestic analogues that implement a similar switching scheme. At the same time, the cost of our product is several times lower than any world analogues due to the use of a unique technology for assembling the case on the basis of an aluminum nitride Board," said Alexey Kostin, head of the development Department for on – Board secondary power sources.
A unique feature of the product is the absence of hinged docking, housing structures and connecting external terminals, and installation is performed using surface mounting technology on the Board. The Board topology made it possible to place transistors and controls located in analogs outside the relay itself as compactly as possible on a single Board inside the case.
In the future, it is planned to halve the size of the product by using a unique technology for mounting power transistors on top of each other, which is at the final stage of development in the RCS. It is also planned to use "key" crystals developed by the holding.