Date: 30/09/2009

IR's DC-DC Converter IC ART2815T is on-board Planck spacecraft

IR's ART2815T triple RAD-Hard DC-DC converter was incorporated into UK-based systems company, SEA's, 4K Cooler Drive Electronics (4KCDE), part of the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) on the Planck satellite.

"We selected IR's ART2815T due to its record of no in-flight failures and high performance and reliability. Moreover, unlike competing bespoke solutions that would require valuable SEA engineering resources to implement, the ART2815T is a mature product supported by all necessary characterization and test data which resulted in a fast and convenient design in," said Scott Mitchell, SEA's principal consultant.

"With more than 20 years of service in the toughest environments, IR is a trusted source for high reliability power management solutions and we are pleased to be designed in to SEA's 4KCDE, a critical part of the HFI on the Planck satellite," said Fred Farris, IR's vice president of sales and marketing, HiRel Business Unit.

Launched into space in May 2009, Planck is a European Space Agency mission to map the Cosmic Microwave Background. The Planck spacecraft will eventually orbit the Sun approximately 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth. The HFI will look for variations in the background temperature of deep space.