A report describes two radiation-hard application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that constitute a mixed-signal chip set that performs all the control functions for a power-converter module (PCM) in a spacecraft power-supply system. One of these ASICs serves mainly as a pulse-width modulation...

A report describes an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for controlling a power-switching metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) in a spacecraft power-supply system. Denoted an SCA (for switch-control ASIC), this ASIC is designed to be radiation-hard and to...

An article discusses anticipated advances in the design of increasingly capable integrated circuits containing ever smaller electronic devices. The article emphasizes the emergence of technology computer-aided design (TCAD) — a discipline in which computer-aided design is combined with computational...

A report describes the NASA Spacecraft Transponding Modem (STM) — a spacecraft transponder now under development for planned use on deep-space missions scheduled for launch in the year 2003. In comparison with a traditional deep-space transponder, the STM will be smaller and less power hungry; the...

The design of a highly reliable controller for a digital data bus incorporates improvements, in both hardware and software, over the basic design of a low-speed, low-power, serial bus known in the industry as "I²C." ("I²C" signifies "inter integrated circuit bus" — a...

The Black Jack (BJ) receiver is the revolutionary flight Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver developed by NASA to fill future needs for orbit-based GPS science. These range from a receiver to determine precise (1-cm radial accuracy goal for JASON-1) orbits, to missions using the GPS signals for remote sensing of the...

Prober Assistant Measurement System (PAMS) is a computer program that automates the time-consuming process of testing microfabricated devices (integrated circuits and/or microelectromechanical systems) at the wafer level. PAMS was written specifically for use with the Karl Suss...

QRAYPKS is a general-purpose FORTRAN optics-analysis computer program that enables the computation of path lengths to an unprecedented level of precision. The impetus for developing QRAYPKS was the need to mathematically model an outer-space laser interferometer to be used in detecting gravitational...

Neural networks of a proposed type would be formed with computational units called "neuromorphs" attached in a locally connected array. These neural networks would achieve pattern recognition invariant under rotation and translation by exploiting a combination of network symmetry and...

The forward-link/simulator card (FLS) performs the fundamental satellite-telemetry data-transmission function for the forward (Earth-to-spacecraft) link in real time at rates up to 400 Mb/s. The FLS also simulates a Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) telemetry data source that outputs data at...

The return-link processor card (RLP) performs all of the fundamental data-processing functions involved in the return of satellite telemetry, in real time at rates up to 400 Mb/s, using industry-standard interface circuitry and connectors with standard sizes and shapes. Previously, four cards, each containing a...

Sensor webs are developmental collections of sensor pods that could be scattered over land or water areas or other regions of interest to gather data on spatial and temporal patterns of relatively slowly changing physical, chemical, or biological phenomena in those regions. Each sensor pod would be a node in a data-gathering/...