Autonomus Reconfiguration using FPAA for Bandwitdh Recovery in Satellite Subsystems

In recent years, satellite communication has gained increased prominence and driving factors are the reliability, new design techniques and reduced cost. The onboard control system components of the satellite are subjected to high temperature, shock and vibration both during initial transport and launch, and also during periodical orbital corrections. These effects can introduce faults in the control systems mounted on the space vehicle. Use of hybrid assembly technology for reducing size, weight and cost is recommended in satellite systems and hence, providing redundant hardware (a common method of recovering from faults) is not feasible since it increases both space and weight. In this context, an alternative approach of fault recovery is to perform reconfiguration of existing circuitry and Field Programmable Analog Array (FPAA) allows the creation of dynamically reconfigurable analogue circuits. This work focuses on reconfigurable hardware based bandwidth recovery for satellite subsystems using FPAA. The proposed FPAA assisted fault recovery system is generic and structure independent and aims at maintaining the system bandwidth in constrained situations of no access to internal circuit for repair or replacement of failed components.