MEMS solar sensor testing for satellite applications

Author

Ortega, J. Garcia ; Tarrida, C.L. ; Quero, J.M. ; Delgado, F.J. ; Ortega, P. ; Castaner, L. ; Reina, M. ; Angulo, M. ; Morilla, Y. ; Lopez, J. Garcia

Author_Institution

Dept. de Ing. Electron., Univ. de Sevilla (US), Sevilla

fYear

2009

fDate

11-13 Feb. 2009

Firstpage

345

Lastpage

348

Abstract

Solar sensors are very common devices used for attitude control of satellites. MEMS technology is very useful to reach the target of reducing the sensor size and cost. We have designed and manufactured a 2 axis analog sun sensor in order to be testing and validated in a real application. The sensor is boarding in the NANOSAT 1B Spanish satellite to be launched in 2009. For several years the satellite and the load devices will be exposed to very hard working conditions. Very accurate calibrating and testing processes have been developed in land to ensure a right performance in orbit. Mechanical, electrical and thermal tests have been applied to the sensor. These tests and its results are discussed In this paper.

Keywords

aerospace instrumentation; artificial satellites; attitude control; calibration; mechanical testing; micromechanical devices; microsensors; thermal analysis; MEMS solar sensor; NANOSAT 1B Spanish satellite; analog sun sensor; calibration process; mechanical test; satellite attitude control; thermal test; Aluminum; Manufacturing; Mechanical sensors; Micromechanical devices; Photodiodes; Protection; Satellites; Space technology; Sun; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices, 2009. CDE 2009. Spanish Conference on

Conference_Location

Santiago de Compostela

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2838-0

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2839-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SCED.2009.4800503

Filename

4800503