Satellites may be visible only as points of light above the horizon, yet their performance depends on silicon built to survive radiation exposure, tight size, weight and power limits and decades long life cycles. Here, Ross Turnbull, Director of Business Development at custom IC design and supply specialist Swindon Silicon Systems, explains why UK satellite programmes increasingly depend on mission-specific ASICs rather than general-purpose devices.
As the UK space sector expands across communications, Earth observation, navigation and resilience, onboard electronics are becoming more substantial. Satellite services support a wide range of economic activity across the UK, while the domestic space sector itself generates £18.6 billion in income. In that context, long-life mission-specific silicon is becoming an increasingly strategic part of UK space capability.
In satellites, integrated circuits (ICs) manage telemetry, sensor interfaces, onboard data processing, power regulation and signal transmission back to Earth. Satellites are essentially flying computers that must keep operating after launch shock and through the harsh environment of space, so chip selection looks very different from terrestrial electronics.
Space ambitions
The UK’s current direction in space is increasingly focused on practical capability, commercial delivery and long-term national value. Current priorities include developing “global niches in satellite communications, space domain awareness, position, navigation and timing, in-orbit servicing and manufacturing, space data applications and space transportation”, according to the UK Space Agency Corporate Plan.
Satellite services already support daily life through communications, global positioning and weather-related applications, which means reliability in-orbit is closely tied to economic value and operational confidence on the ground.
That wider context gives semiconductor design much sharper relevance. Satellites are expected to continue operating for long mission lives, often around ten to 20 years, with no realistic option for routine repair or replacement once deployed. The ICs inside them have to function through every command, measurement and calculation over that period.
Space projects also work within strict SWaP-C constraints, meaning size, weight, power and cost must all be tightly controlled. Simultaneously, space electronics must cope with high reliability requirements, long product lifetimes and long development cycles in space electronics.
Built for orbit
Standard commercial parts rarely map neatly onto those conditions. Space electronics must contend with radiation, thermal cycling, vacuum and mechanical stress during launch, all of which sit outside the assumptions behind most off-the-shelf devices.
Key hazards include total ionising dose, displacement damage and single-event effects, which can degrade electronics or interrupt correct operation in-orbit. One familiar example is the single-event upset (SEU), where an energetic particle disturbs a sensitive node in a device and flips a stored bit or changes a logic state.
This is where mission-specific ICs come into their own. Radiation-hardened ASICs offer the highest performance, lowest power and smallest size ICs for satellite programmes, while digital and mixed-signal ASICs, memories and power devices remain central to satellite electronics.
An ASIC can be tailored to the exact communication path, control function or data-handling task that a satellite requires, helping engineers reduce board complexity and make more deliberate trade-offs around power and reliability. Consolidating multiple functions into one purpose-built device can also reduce the number of potential failure points across the wider system.
Designing for lifetime
One of the defining tensions in space electronics is that the mission lifetime can easily outlast the commercial lifetime of the semiconductor processes and parts used to build it. Space projects must contend with long product lifetimes and long development cycles, while earth-orbiting satellites typically remain in service for decades. Reliability therefore depends not just on electrical performance at qualification, but on whether the part can be supported and trusted across the full span of the mission.
For that reason, obsolescence planning must be considered with ASICs from the very beginning. Supply chain shifts, regulatory change and the loss of qualified materials or processes can introduce costly redesign pressure if they surface too late in the programme. For satellite programmes, this is also where the choice of ASIC partner starts to matter.
Swindon Silicon’s full turnkey (FTK) model brings those lifecycle considerations under one roof, covering design, verification, foundry and packaging management, production test and long-term supply. That matters in space projects because clear ownership can simplify issue resolution, reduce ambiguity when changes are needed and help ensure continuity of supply if processes or packaging become obsolete over the satellite’s operational life.
For satellites, reliability is not something added once in orbit. It is designed into the silicon from the outset. That’s why mission-specific ASICs matter so much: they help satellites stay efficient, resilient and supportable over the long lifetimes that modern missions demand.
Learn more about Swindon’s FTK ASICs for satellites and enquire about a no-obligation first discussion by visiting the website.
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