ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9999
Open Date: 24/09/2019
Closing Date: 05/11/2019 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 19.1EP.08
Prog. Ref.: Technology Developme
Budget Ref.: E/0901-01 – Technology Developme
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+PL+EE+HU
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Power / Power Monitoring and Control / PCDUs, … / Satellites & Probes / Power / Power Monitoring and Control ¿ C&P / *See EEE Components
Technology Domains: Spacecraft Electrical Power / Power Conditioning and Distribution / Power Conditioning
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Electrical Department
Division: Power Systems, EMC & Space Environ.Div
Contract Officer: Singer, Anze
Industrial Policy Measure: C2 – Activities in open competition, significant partecipat…
Last Update Date: 24/09/2019
Update Reason: Modified the Letter of Invitation (English version)

Gan technology for power applications is becoming mature these days. Gan switches can operate at higher frequencies and with the same level of efficiency as Si ones, with overall mass and volume PCDU benefits. Typical Earth Observation (EO) active instruments like Synthetic Aperture Radar, scatterometers or altimeters, and Laser Detection And Ranging, transmit high energy pulses in short periods of time. These pulses could be easily handled with gan based converters and the rest of the platform would not be affected at all, improving the electrical noise quietness. Since the max power level provided by a gan devices is limited compared to Si ones, a technical workaround is to implement multi-phase topologies that split the power processing into multiple parallel phases. Another key point is the possible improvement of PCDU dynamic capabilities. With GaN, a 1mHz switching frequency and 100 kHz bandwidth could be easily reached, meaning that DC/DC converters could react much faster and keep the power quality even with high frequency pulsating payloads. A GaN based Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) could potentially achieve a similar cost to a simpler Direct Energy Transfer (DET) option, but with higher flexibility to standardize the PCDU for application in various missions. The tasks involved are:-Consolidate the specifications of the target PCDU for an EO mission- Revisit all conversion PCDU modules to identify which components can be substituted by GaN semiconductors- Identify GaN components to be used at PCDU level- Perform the conceptual design of the whole PCDU to trade off mass, volume, dissipation, dynamic performance and manufacturing simplicity- Draft the detail design of the conversion and distribution modules- Build and test a breadboard of the conversion and distribution modules- Develop the thermal concept of the PCDUProcurement Policy: C(2) = A relevant participation (in terms of quality and quantity) of non-primes (incl. SMEs) is required. For additional information please go to EMITS news “Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and RD entities in ESA programmes”.