Designing electrical interfaces

The various aspects which must be considered by an engineer when designing the electrical interfaces between its unit and the other units which make up the complete satellite system are included. Topics covered include: (1) interfaces with power supplies (concept of essential and non-essential loads and the implications on unit design; filtering of supply lines); (2) telecommand interfaces (low level on/off high level on/off memory load); (3) telemetry interfaces (analog; digital); and (4) other miscellaneous interfaces topics (use of emitter followers analog small signal interface synchronization of converters to external sources). By highlighting the electrical interface aspects which have to be considered during the early design stages of a project, it is hoped that the frustration and loss of time which so often occur during satellite integration as a result of incompatible interface will be avoided in the future.