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Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Nirma University

Electronics

above

Earth

There is one more world present above us developed by eng ineers & scientists like us. Here, in this article, we are
g oing to talk about the Challeng es for Space Electronics with some remedies for those challeng es and the role of EC
eng ineers in space application. So, fasten your seat belts, switch off your cell-phones and g et ready for a quick tour

to know Electronics above the Earth.

Electronics in Space Applications
Nowadays, Life is impossible without satellite services as many sectors use it for various purposes including g lobal
finance, telecommunications, transportation, weather

forecasting , national defense, and aviation. We can
classify satellite services in three broad areas:
Navig ation, Communication, and Earth observation.
Navig ation satellites are used for the GPS, during

disasters Communication satellite pro-vide uninterrupted
communications services. Earth observation satellites
Manan Jain are used for transmitting environmental data. While Neel Joshi
(18BEC050) you are reading this article more than 1500 satellites (18BEC045)
are orbiting our earth! Microelectronics plays an important role in space electronics. Analog Devices has been
supporting the aerospace and defense markets for decades with hig h reliability. Electronic warfare, radars,

communications, avionics, unmanned systems, and missile are major applications in aerospace. Nowadays space market
focuses on the solutions for the challeng ing requirements of the space.

Challeng es for Electronics in Space

 Effects due to Temperature swing s: In space, there are rapid and wide chang es in temperature as compared
to that of Earth. It not only rises to 1200C in presence of sun but also falls to the -1800C. Electronic
components which work efficiently at low temperature are very useful for space technolog y as they reduce
weig ht as well as manufacturing cost by eliminating the hit sinks In desig n. These components are tested
before used for space applications which includes re-start operation and thermal cycling for different frequency
sig nals.

 Radiation effect: Radiation present outside Earth environment causes variation in some parameters of electronic
components or sometimes can result in complete functional failure of the component as well. Basically, Itis

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