Abstract
This paper describes a single-chip electronic system for a Plasma Impedance Probe (PIP) currently being developed for microsatellite instrumentation. The chip integrates all of the major analog and mixed-signal components needed to perform swept-frequency impedance measurements. By integrating these components onto a single chip, the weight and volume of the PIP instrument are drastically reduced. Unlike previous PIP designs, the integrated PIP performs direct voltage/current sampling on the probe’s terminal. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is performed by an off-chip FPGA to compute the impedance of the probe. By performing A-to-D conversion as early as possible in the signal flow chain, the design is made less sensitive to variability in analog components. By using an FFT operation, the instrument is made less sensitive to transient spikes that proved disruptive in previous PIP designs.
Presentation Slides
Fully-Integrated Electronic System for a Plasma Impedance Probe
This paper describes a single-chip electronic system for a Plasma Impedance Probe (PIP) currently being developed for microsatellite instrumentation. The chip integrates all of the major analog and mixed-signal components needed to perform swept-frequency impedance measurements. By integrating these components onto a single chip, the weight and volume of the PIP instrument are drastically reduced. Unlike previous PIP designs, the integrated PIP performs direct voltage/current sampling on the probe’s terminal. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is performed by an off-chip FPGA to compute the impedance of the probe. By performing A-to-D conversion as early as possible in the signal flow chain, the design is made less sensitive to variability in analog components. By using an FFT operation, the instrument is made less sensitive to transient spikes that proved disruptive in previous PIP designs.
