Some Aspects of French Solid-State Component Space Technology

This paper will describe three particular aspects of work in FRANCE which has been carried out in the field of solid-state components for space applications. These are: Domestic television reception at 12 GHz for the ground sector in which a better than 4 dB noise figure is obtained for an all-FET receiver (made by LEP). A switching matrix for an SSTDMA space borne system which is a rapid (less than 50 ns), redundant (each channel has 4 possible routes), PIN diode 8 x 8 way matrix (THOMSON CSF). A description of the reliability test programme for components (the Space Components Coordination Group) which is supported by the French Space Agency (CNES) and has defined a set of test procedures which is applied to other applications (not only space) and is used generally in EUROPE and beyond.