Silicon Sensing Systems Ltd has worked with Science Tokyo, a prominent science and technology university in Japan, to evaluate the capabilities of the DMU41 inertial measurement unit (IMU) for low earth orbit (LEO) space applications.
The testing program assessed the use of Silicon Sensing’s high-performance DMU41 for guidance and attitude control on commercial LEO platforms.
The program involved subjecting the DMU41 to multiple rounds of radiation testing to simulate exposure to naturally occurring radiation in low earth orbit. This included single event effect (SEE) and total ionizing dose (TID) testing.
The DMU41 is a tactical-grade, 9-degrees-of-freedom IMU. It is a durable micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) device that operates in temperatures between -40°C and +85°C, delivering outstanding low noise performance, bias instability, and angle random walk.
The DMU41 challenges the performance of typical fibre-optic gyro IMUs while being significantly more compact, with dimensions of just 50 x 50 x 50mm, weighing under 180g, and consuming less than 2.5W.
Silicon Sensing General Manager, David Somerville, stated, “Working with the prestigious Science Tokyo on this new test programme to demonstrate the capabilities of our DMU41 IMU has been a milestone development for us, as we celebrate our 25th year of business.
“The global LEO satellite market, with a CAGR predicted at around 17% over the next 4 – 5 years, is an important future market for us – and an area where we are already experiencing growing demand. In this environment performance, size, endurance and power consumption are all critical factors where we believe our technology can make a real performance difference.”
