ESA: Space fuses successfully requalified

For more than a decade SCHURTER has been the exclusive supplier of fuses to the European Space Agency (ESA). SCHURTER and ESA have been cooperating closely in research and development for many years. The requalification, which is due every two years, was also carried out in 2020 without any objections.

Just over 12 years ago, SCHURTER was the first and only European manufacturer to announce that its MGA-S fuse had been successfully tested and certified by ESTEC (European Space and Research and Technology Center), the testing and certification body of ESA. The MGA-S is an SMD fuse, which is manufactured in thin-film technology and is hermetically sealed and extremely robust with a ceramic housing. Similarly, the HCSF fuse (High Current Space Fuse) was developed for applications with higher rated currents. In January 2016, after an intensive evaluation and qualification process, SCHURTER also received the certification of the HCSF fuse. Twelve years after the successful qualification of the MGA-S, SCHURTER is still the only Swiss company and also the only European supplier of fuses with this qualification.

Most demanding tests

Both fuses meet the extremely demanding requirements of the space industry, such as consistent properties in operation in high vacuum or accelerations up to 1600 g.

Since 2008 SCHURTER has been producing MGA-S fuses according to the agreed product requirements. The evaluation phase for the development of the requirements and solution approaches took four years. Each individual space fuse is subjected to a screening test. All measured values are recorded and handed over to the customer in a batch documentation together with the delivery. In biennial requalification processes, compliance with all production engineering measures is checked by ESA on the basis of defined qualification criteria.

Applications

Currently, space fuses are used to protect redundant systems in satellites against short-circuits or to switch them off selectively so that a replacement system can take over the function. Communication systems are also switched on and off selectively, for example to send data packets at a specific time. These switching behaviours cause high pulse loads when switching on, which must be absorbed by the fuses without triggering and without influencing their long-term switch-off behaviour.