Electronics department

EASE Business Unit (Embedded sub-systems Advanced Studies)

Know-how

Engineers' substantial experience from Skylab Industries Research and Development Department represents 15 years work in design, realization and integration of electronics and embedded software on aeronautics and space projects.

This know-how covers the following themes:

• Embedded systems
  • Power electronics, HDI PCB design with analog/digital (high frequencies) constraints and EMC
  • Control/command electronics
  • Signal processing (DSP) and digital communication
  • FPGA System on chip
  • I²C, SPI, CAN, Ethernet, USB, PCI Express protocols
• MIL/AERO
  • Integration of Intellectual Properties RTL modules and System on chip design using Actel ProAsic3, Xilinx Virtex 5 technologies or antifuse ones.
  • Avionics communication protocols
  • Custom VHDL modules development
  • Electronics in compliance with DO254 specifications
  • Mechanical and cables design, with aeronautics certification (ex: EASA form 1)
• SPACE
  • Front-end/Camera electronics or scientific instrumentation design
  • Digital Processing Unit / DSP
  • DC/DC converter, EMI filters
  • SoC design and radiation tolerant IP (SEU-proof) using SPARC Fault tolerant architectures (ex : Leon3FT-RTAX)
  • SpaceWire/RMAP protocols
  • Technologies : FPGA Actel RTAXS, RTAX-DSP, RTProAsic3, Aeroflex or Atmel
  • Leon processors : AT697F , UT699, SpW-RTC and SpW routers
  • ECSS compliant FPGA and electronics design
  • Design and manufacturing of space cables or boxes.

Skylab Industries R&T axes will lead to the following industrialization of products:

• AERO/SPACE board for custom digital signal processing and control/command
  • Generic capacity for signal processor : 100-150MIPS, RISC architecture and configurable VHDL
  • Mezzanine interface board, customizable on demand.
  • Unique compact size due to high density PCB stacking and microelectronics integration, power conversion included.
  • Environmental constraints: Mitigation techniques varies depending on mission constraints
• SpaceWire test equipment (compliant to ECSS-S-ST-50-12C)
  • SKYLAB works on the industrialization of low-cost/right cost integration and test equipments. This devices allow SpW protocol validation and test, even analysis in some cases, using USB and other commercial protocols like PCI Express or gigabit Ethernet. These equipments are miniaturized as much as possible, using the most appropriate and available microelectronics devices and techniques.
  • SKYLAB is an active member of the SpaceWire working group at ESTEC.