Figure 2- Voltage Regulator Typical Schematic

3. Power I/O Selection: To switch the power flow on and off between various components on and off the power board, a standard transistor stack is used. This stack is a PFET in series with the current path with its gate attached to the drain of an NFET. The NFET has its source grounded and is connected to a select voltage at its gate. Further, a large value (1M) resistor is connected between the source and gate of the PFET. The transistor stack works in the following way: When the select voltage is high, the NFET turns on and pulls the PFET gate voltage to GND. This turns on the PFET and allows current to flow and power to be transferred. When the select voltage goes low, the NFET turns off. The current through the large valued resistor (1M) then charges the PFET gate to the PFET source potential and the PFET turns off. Thus current (and power) flow is cut off. Please see Figure 3 for a schematic of a typical power board transistor stack switch.

Figure 3- Typical Power Switch Schematic

4. Coil Drive H-Bridge:

In order to provide a low-voltage, high current (dual directional), high efficiency coil drive for the magnetometer circuits, an all NFET H-Bridge was employed. This configuration allows the control signals at the gates to be larger than the total voltage applied across the bridge, which lets the transistors be operated well into saturation to decrease losses. A low frequency uni-directional PWM will be used to drive the coils (i.e. only one leg will be used at a time, not switching between positive and negative currents. This will increase efficiency). Switching losses must be minimized. The configuration is a standard H-Bridge with 1.5V applied to the top of the stack and the bottom of the stack grounded. Low Rds(on) transistors have been used to limit losses (Rds(on) ~0.1). To select a positive current, the control signal sel_i_+ is set to 5V, which forces two of the transistors into the saturation region and allows current to flow in the positive direction through the coil. (i= x,y,z) To select a negative current, the control signal sel_i_- is set to 5V, which forces the other two of the transistors into the saturation region and allows current to flow in the negative direction through the coil. (i= x,y,z) Note: sel_i_+ and sel_i_- must NEVER be turned on at the same time, as this will allow short circuit current to flow through the legs of the H-Bridge, avoiding the load and likely burning out the devices (and discharging the batteries rapidly). One control signal or the other may be on at any given time, but not both (and most of the time they will both be set to GND anyway). Currents on the order of 0.5 to 1.0A are expected. Please see Figure 4 for a schematic of one of the three identical H-Bridge circuits.

Figure 4- Coil Drive H-Bridge Circuit Schematic

5. Input Voltage Regulated Boost Converter: This satellite system has been specified such that the solar cell voltage (~4V) is less than the system bus and battery voltage (~9-13V). This is atypical for satellite systems where the solar cell voltage is usually MUCH higher than the bus/battery voltage. As such, a somewhat non-standard technique must be used in order to obtain efficient power transfer from the solar cells to the batteries and the other satellite loads.