COST COMPETITIVE AND RELIABLE CONVERTERS (ARTES AT 5C.300)

Description

The objective of the activity is to assess the flexible converters requirements for geostationary applications, evaluatethe potential requirements relaxation and build and test an associatedengineering model.

Targeted Improvements: Reduced costs (20%).

Description: The pressure to reduce prices and delivery times of geostationary commercial telecommunications satellites is alwaysincreasing, at satellite, payload and equipment levels. This is particularly true for highly recurrent units such as converters, low-noise amplifiers and channel amplifiers where the competition is fierce. Non-European countries are currently flying equipment following different quality approaches, for instance non hermetic hybrids, reduced screened parts, off-the-shelf commercial components.Those companies are commercially successful in providing cheap equipment, which remains the number one market driver.

This developmentwill provide a completely new and innovative approach, enabling the production of converters with reduced cost and lead-time, whilst meeting the needs of the satellite manufacturers and having a commercial advantage against worldwide manufacturers.

In particular,the following domains shall be investigated:

  1. A detailed breakdown of the recurring and non-recurring costs, including procurement, engineering, manufacturing, test and documentation shall be performed. The main converter performances cost drivers shall be identified and quantified.
  2. A review of the quality requirements for GEO flight part and equipment screening, reliability and assessment of real requirements needs. Associated cost shall be quantified.
  3. Analysis and comparison of quality standards (space, military, automotive for instance) shall be performed. Potential highlighted major saving axis shall be evaluated. A new quality plan shall be defined to meet target cost savings on the equipment.
  4. Preliminary reliability studies and tests shall be performed to demonstrate feasibility of the new quality plan.
  5. A new converter shall be designed to cost according to the new quality plan. An engineering model of the selected configuration shall be built and tested, and associated reliability demonstrated.
  6. The cost analysis taking into account the new quality plan shall also be made for other highly recurring RF equipment, e.g. Channel amplifiers.

Tender Specifics