SpaceTech Pyro Drive Module (Actuator Drive Unit)
SpaceTech GmbH
Single-point-failure-free actuator drive electronics for triggering thermal knife and non-explosive actuator (NEA) release devices.
Technical specifications
- Bus interface
- Satellite primary power, 28V nominal
- Command interface
- OBC command & control; NEA fire control including safe-and-arming functions
- Implementation
- Fully realized in hardware without soft- or firmware
- Command concept
- Safe command concept: pre-arm, arm, fire
- Drive stage
- Switched current source to drive the actuators
- Channel logic
- Individual logic to combine or exclude firing of more than one channel
- Radiation tolerance (TID)
- >= 50 krads
- Redundancy (PDM/GökTürk-2)
- Cold redundant electronic part with internal cross-coupling to both hot redundant power stages; three-level inhibit system
About
SpaceTech designs, manufactures and tests high-reliability, compact and cold-redundant Actuator Drive Units used to trigger actuators such as thermal knifes or non-explosive actuators (NEA) for satellite deployment and separation functions. Electronics that trigger such actuators are often mission-critical: an unintended trigger is as critical as a missing one. The SpaceTech Actuator Drive Electronics are designed to be single-point-failure free, taking into account hazard and safety-critical aspects of actuator handling and firing, and interface with the satellite primary bus (28V nominal) and the OBC command and control chain, including NEA fire control with safe-and-arming functions. The design flight heritage includes the Pyro Drive Module (PDM) developed for the GökTürk-2 satellite, whose main task is to provide regulated current for a predefined period to release the solar panel deployment mechanisms by activating thermal knifes, implemented with cold-redundant electronics and a three-level inhibit system for safety.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.
