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Projecte llegit

Títol: Up-screening and Testing of Commercial Electronic Components for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: PARK, HYUK

Departament: FIS

Títol: Up-screening and Testing of Commercial Electronic Components for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites

Data inici oferta: 20-07-2025     Data finalització oferta: 20-03-2026


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Paraules clau:
COTS, LEO, EEE components, CubeSat, New Space, up-screening, screening, ECSS, ESCC, radiation testing
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
Satellites operating in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) face a demanding environment, where electronic systems must withstand radiation, vacuum, wide temperature variations, and strong mechanical stresses during launch and operation. Traditionally, these systems rely on space-qualified components certified under standards such as MIL-STD-883 or ESCC, which ensures reliability but results in high costs and long procurement times.

This thesis focuses on the upscaling of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic components, establishing a methodology to evaluate their suitability, durability, and expected operational lifetime when exposed to space-representative conditions. The research aims to determine the feasibility of reducing costs in LEO satellite systems without compromising mission reliability beyond acceptable thresholds.

The work plan is summarized as follows:

Literature review and context: Study existing qualification standards (MIL-STD, ESCC) and identify the dominant environmental factors affecting electronic components in LEO, including radiation, temperature extremes, vacuum, and launch-induced mechanical loads.

Component selection and classification: Build upon previous work to identify representative COTS components and classify them according to their role and criticality within satellite systems.

Design of experimental procedures: Define test protocols to replicate key environmental conditions using available university facilities, focusing on thermal cycling, vacuum simulation when possible, and vibration/launch stress profiles.

Execution of selected tests: Carry out environmental tests such as repeated thermal cycling or vibration and evaluate the functional performance of the components before and after testing.

Lifetime estimation and modeling: Use accelerated aging models combined with LEO radiation environment data to extrapolate operational lifetimes for the tested components.

Conclusions and recommendations: Propose a practical and reproducible methodology for the upscaling and validation of non-space-qualified components for LEO satellite missions
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
This Bachelor Thesis studies the use of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) EEE components for LEO New Space missions, with the objective of reducing cost while keeping a defendable engineering process. The work explains why COTS became attractive in small satellites, but also why COTS can fail in space due to physical stressors that are not covered by normal commercial qualification.
First, the thesis identifies the main environmental stressors affecting electronics in LEO and discusses which ones require additional verification for COTS parts. Special focus is given to radiation effects (TID and SEE), because radiation testing is difficult and expensive in a university context. To support decision-making, the thesis adopts a structured approach from the literature to evaluate component criticality and decide when radiation testing is needed, using FMECA logic and a radiation decision flow.
Second, the thesis reviews the role of space product assurance standards (mainly ECSS/ESCC) and proposes how they can be tailored for an academic project. The resulting strategy focuses on a screening-oriented acceptance up-screening flow, instead of full qualification, because full qualification campaigns require long timelines, specialized facilities, and significant sample sizes.
Finally, the thesis proposes a complete documentation chain and a Test Vehicle PCB concept to test several components efficiently at subsystem level. A practical case study is presented for a selected component list, showing how the process and documents would be applied. The study concludes that COTS can be a good option mainly when test evidence already exists (COTS+/EP) or when costs can be amortized (e.g., constellations), while careless use of COTS is not recommended.

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