Design Article
High-performance FPGAs take flight in microsatellites
Adam Taylor, EADS Astrium
6/1/2011 5:59 AM EDT
Editor's Note: I am delighted to have the opportunity to present the following piece from the second quarter 2011 issue of the Xcell Journal, with the kind permission of Xilinx Inc.
The UKube1 mission is the pilot mission for the U.K. Space Agency’s planned CubeSat program. CubeSats are a class of nanosatellites that are scalable from the basic 1U satellite (10 x 10 x 10 cm) up to 3U (30 x 10 x 10 cm) and beyond, and which are flown in low-earth orbit. The typical development cost of a CubeSat payload is less than $100,000, and development time is short. This combination makes CubeSats an ideal platform for verifying new and exciting technologies in orbit without the associated overhead or risks that would be present in flying these payloads on a larger mission. Of course, this class of satellites can present its own series of design challenges for the engineers involved.
The EADS Astrium payload for the UKube1 mission comprises two experiments, both of which are FPGA-based. The first experiment is the validation of a patent held by Astrium on random-number generation. True random-number generation is an essential component of secure communications systems. The second experiment is the flight of a large, high-performance Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA with the aim of achieving additional in-flight experience with this technology while gaining an understanding of the device’s radiation performance and capabilities in the low-earth orbit (LEO). Figure 1 shows the architecture of the payload.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Next: Radiation effects
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Utilizing Xilinx Virtex-4 devices in a U.K. CubeSat mission presents some interesting design challenges.
The UKube1 mission is the pilot mission for the U.K. Space Agency’s planned CubeSat program. CubeSats are a class of nanosatellites that are scalable from the basic 1U satellite (10 x 10 x 10 cm) up to 3U (30 x 10 x 10 cm) and beyond, and which are flown in low-earth orbit. The typical development cost of a CubeSat payload is less than $100,000, and development time is short. This combination makes CubeSats an ideal platform for verifying new and exciting technologies in orbit without the associated overhead or risks that would be present in flying these payloads on a larger mission. Of course, this class of satellites can present its own series of design challenges for the engineers involved.
The EADS Astrium payload for the UKube1 mission comprises two experiments, both of which are FPGA-based. The first experiment is the validation of a patent held by Astrium on random-number generation. True random-number generation is an essential component of secure communications systems. The second experiment is the flight of a large, high-performance Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA with the aim of achieving additional in-flight experience with this technology while gaining an understanding of the device’s radiation performance and capabilities in the low-earth orbit (LEO). Figure 1 shows the architecture of the payload.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Requirements and challenges
Designing for a CubeSat mission provides the engineers with many challenges, not least of which is the available power—there is not much of it, at 400 milliwatts on average in sunlight orbit for the UKube1. Weight restrictions come in at a shade over 300 grams for a 3U, 4.5-kg satellite. Combined with the space envelope available for a payload, these limitations present the design team with an interesting set of challenges to address if they are to develop a successful payload. The engineers must also address single-event upsets (SEUs) and other radiation effects, which can affect the performance of a device in orbit regardless of the class of satellite.
The power architecture in UKube1 provides regulated 3.3-, 5- and 12-volt supplies to each of the payloads. It is permissible to take up to 600 mA from each of these rails. However, the sunlit-orbit average must be less than 400 mW. Unfortunately, the voltages supplied are not at levels suitable to supply today’s high-performance space-grade FPGAs, which typically require 1.5 V or less to supply the core voltage. For example, the Virtex-4 space-grade device we selected for this mission, the XQR4VSX55 FPGA, requires a core voltage of 1.2 V along with supporting voltages of 2.5 and 3.3 V. The configuration PROMs needed to support the FPGA require 1.8 V.
We selected the XQR4VSX55 because it was the largest high-performance FPGA that could be accommodated within the UKube1 payload while still achieving both the footprint and power requirements. The power engineer and the FPGA engineer must give considerable thought to the power architecture to ensure all of the power constraints are achieved. Tools such as the PlanAhead™ and XPower Analyzer software are vital for the FPGA engineer to provide FPGA power budgets to the power engineer. We chose high-efficiency switching regulators for this mission to ensure we could achieve the currents required by the SX55 FPGA could be achieved.
The space available to implement the FPGA and its supporting functions is very limited, with the payload being constrained to a PC104-size printed-circuit board. However, mezzanine cards are permitted provided they do not exceed the height restrictions of 35 mm. Therefore, we developed the UKube1 payload to include a mezzanine card that contained the FPGAs, SRAM and flash memory, while the lower board contained all of the power management and conversion functionality (see Figure 2).
Designing for a CubeSat mission provides the engineers with many challenges, not least of which is the available power—there is not much of it, at 400 milliwatts on average in sunlight orbit for the UKube1. Weight restrictions come in at a shade over 300 grams for a 3U, 4.5-kg satellite. Combined with the space envelope available for a payload, these limitations present the design team with an interesting set of challenges to address if they are to develop a successful payload. The engineers must also address single-event upsets (SEUs) and other radiation effects, which can affect the performance of a device in orbit regardless of the class of satellite.
The power architecture in UKube1 provides regulated 3.3-, 5- and 12-volt supplies to each of the payloads. It is permissible to take up to 600 mA from each of these rails. However, the sunlit-orbit average must be less than 400 mW. Unfortunately, the voltages supplied are not at levels suitable to supply today’s high-performance space-grade FPGAs, which typically require 1.5 V or less to supply the core voltage. For example, the Virtex-4 space-grade device we selected for this mission, the XQR4VSX55 FPGA, requires a core voltage of 1.2 V along with supporting voltages of 2.5 and 3.3 V. The configuration PROMs needed to support the FPGA require 1.8 V.
We selected the XQR4VSX55 because it was the largest high-performance FPGA that could be accommodated within the UKube1 payload while still achieving both the footprint and power requirements. The power engineer and the FPGA engineer must give considerable thought to the power architecture to ensure all of the power constraints are achieved. Tools such as the PlanAhead™ and XPower Analyzer software are vital for the FPGA engineer to provide FPGA power budgets to the power engineer. We chose high-efficiency switching regulators for this mission to ensure we could achieve the currents required by the SX55 FPGA could be achieved.
The space available to implement the FPGA and its supporting functions is very limited, with the payload being constrained to a PC104-size printed-circuit board. However, mezzanine cards are permitted provided they do not exceed the height restrictions of 35 mm. Therefore, we developed the UKube1 payload to include a mezzanine card that contained the FPGAs, SRAM and flash memory, while the lower board contained all of the power management and conversion functionality (see Figure 2).
Next: Radiation effects
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mngardon
6/2/2011 10:56 AM EDT
How are you addressing system health monitoring in a radiation hard environment? Current solutions are costly, power hungry and consume board space and add more weight.
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Dixy3
6/2/2011 12:35 PM EDT
There is also a downloadable PDF version of the above Xcell issue 75 journal at http://www.xilinx.com/publications/archives/xcell/Xcell75.pdf
Good article, AMSAT-UK is also building their own FunCube satellite and AMSAT-ZL is designing, building their own KwiwiSAT satellite both due to launch in late 2011. Biggest breakthrough is the FunCube Dongle by Howard Long which will allow licensed radio amateurs and academic schools a cheap method to receive and decode digital signals between 64MHz to 1,700MHz using Software Defined Radio. The more schools and universities become involved the better the future looks.
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