Aeroflex Single Board Computers & instrument circuit cards for nuclear environments measuring and monitoring

A Single Board Computer (SBC) is an entire computer including all of the required components and I/O interfaces built on a single circuit board. SBC´s are used across numerous industrial, military and space flight applications. In the case of military and space implementations, SBC´s employ advanced high reliability processors designed for rugged thermal, mechanical and even radiation environments. These processors, in turn, rely on equally advanced support components such as memory, interface, and digital logic. When all of these components are put together on a printed circuit card, the result is a highly reliable Single Board Computer that can perform a wide variety of tasks in very harsh environments. In the area of instrumentation, peripheral circuit cards can be developed that directly interface to the SBC and various radiation measuring devices and systems. Designers use signal conditioning and high reliability Analog to Digital Converters (ADC´s) to convert the measuring device signals to digital data suitable for a microprocessor. The data can then be sent to the SBC via high speed communication protocols such as Ethernet or similar type of serial bus. Data received by the SBC can then be manipulated and processed into a form readily available to users. Recent events are causing some in the NPP industry to consider devices and systems with better radiation and temperature performance capability. Systems designed for space application are designed for the harsh environment of space which under certain conditions would be similar to what the electronics will see during a severe nuclear reactor event. The NPP industry should be considering higher reliability electronics for certain critical applications.