Development of a state-of-the-art power actuation and switching module

In a unique JPL, Lockheed Martin and Boeing government/industry partnership a "state of the art" Power Actuation and Switching Module (PASM) has been developed, designed and fabricated for flight qualification on NASA's Deep Space Flight One (DS-1) mission in the third quarter of 1998. The features associated with the development of the PASM combine NASA/JPL's desire to advance the art of power electronics packaging, Lockheed Martin's proprietary High Density Interconnect (HDI) technology, and Boeing Company's expertise in the Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design and layout. The PASM development project was organized under JPL's New Millennium Program (NMP) Microelectronics Integrated Product Development Team (IPDT) and was cost shared by both the government and industry. The industry assumed the cost of developing the product and the government paid for its fabrication and test. The PASM is a quad switch device. Each of the four standalone switches provides the capability to switch power, isolate faults, limit in-rush and fault currents, and supplies voltage and current telemetry. Additionally, it offers the capability for trip time control, di/dt and dv/dt control, and remote on/off control. Each switch can switch anywhere from 3 to 40 volts at 3 amps maximum and, as a result, can be used in switching primary as well as the secondary side (conditioned) power. The use of HDI technology for packaging and ASICs for switch control electronics gives PASM a 4 to 1 weight, volume and footprint advantage over existing hybrid products. This paper briefly summarizes the project organization and history, and describes in detail the packaging aspects of the module.