On board computers and signal processors
Developments based on the radiation hardened space version of the most common processor families: MIL-STD 1750 (MAS 281, MA 31750), MCS 51, 80X86, DSP 21020; Sparc ERC 32 have given Crisa a significant expertise in hardware and real time software, on board computers and data handling technology, including:
- Computing: Instrument Controllers (ICUs), Attitude Control Computers, TM/TC Communications Processors
- Data/Signal Processing Units (DPUs & SPUs)
- Remote Terminal Unit (RTUs)
- Control and Actuation electronics
- Real Time embedded software applications for instrument data handling, health monitoring and data processing, compression and distribution
- Microelectronics products: ASIC, SoC, FPGAs and technology for TC/TM management, encryption & decryption, processor companion chips, specific serial I/Fs, etc.
Crisa has supplied multiple spacecraft computers and controllers for different missions:
- Instrument Control Unit for the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
- Gaia proximity electronics module
- Attitude Control Computer for scientific XMM and Integral satellites
- Data Processing Electronics for Integral
- Metop ASCAT Data Processing Unit, including front-end, digitalisation, and processing SW (DSP based) design and development
- Herschel/Planck high performance DSP processors: PACS Signal Processing Unit, and LFI Radiometer Electronics Box Assembly
- GOCE IPCU Sparc ERC32 CPU based
- Star Tracker and Navigation Camera electronics for Rosetta, Mars Express and Venus Express scientific missions
- Mechanisms Actuation Module for Helios 2 military satellite
- Pleiades Control Momentum Gyroscope Electronics (CMGE), based on agile attitude control system
- Combined control and power distribution electronics developed for: Metop IASI Instrument Management S/S Hardware, and the SpainSat IRMA Antena control and power supplies ICU & PSU
- Communications Processor Formatter and De-formatter for the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)
- Self-contained and Space Station experiments: EDMO gas experiment flown in STS-64 and AMS Cryomagnet Avionics Box for the ISS.
Gaia will create a 1.000 million star map of the Milky Way
The future Gaia satellite will be the biggest digital camera in the solar system, reaching a resolution of almost one gigapixel thanks to its 106 CCDs (Charged Couple Devices). Each CCD will be controlled by one of the proximity electronic modules currently under development by Crisa
