Micro Processing a Path to Aggressive Instrument Miniaturization for Micro and Picosats

Advanced micro-fabrication and packaging techniques provided through microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology enable fabrication and system integration of a miniature flat plasma spectrometer (FlaPS) capable of making fine resolution measurements of the kinetic energy spectra and angular distributions of ions in a space environment. This instrument demonstration flies on USAFA Falconsat-3 and represents a demonstration of how advanced fabrication techniques for the microprocessing world can be utilized to derive aggressive miniaturization. High performance metrics in terms of sensitivity and resolution are achievable with significant reductions in mass and power compared to conventional spectrometers. A FlaPS instrument, including sensor-head array, printed circuit board with amplifier array electronics, power supply, and chassis has been designed and built to occupy a volume of approximately 200 cm³ in a 0.5kg, 300mW package. This technique could easily be migrated to other instruments and in the future potentially to subsystems