AEi Systems is a

space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

and

power electronics Power electronics is the application of electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. The first high-power electronic devices were made using mercury-arc valves. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconduct ...

engineering firm based in the United States that concentrates on circuit, systems and design analysis. AEi Systems specialises in

Worst case circuit analysis Worst-case circuit analysis (WCCA or WCA) is a cost-effective means of screening a design to ensure with a high degree of confidence that potential defects and deficiencies are identified and eliminated prior to and during test, production, and deli ...

(WCCA) of critical space-bound circuitry, boards and components, including power supplies and power systems. Such specialized analysis often informs changes and updates to designs that have previously been deemed flight-ready. The company is well known for its deep analysis of space-bound DC-DC converters and other industrial and commercial power supplies and power systems — especially those that must operate reliably over long periods of time (often under extreme conditions that include combinations of radiation, magnetic fields, heat, cold, and the like). Analyses often performed by AEi Systems include

stress analysis Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology) Stress, whether physiological, biological or psychological, is an organism's response to a stressor, such as an environmental condition or change in life circumstances. When s ...

failure analysis Failure analysis is the process of collecting and analyzing data to determine the cause of a failure, often with the goal of determining corrective actions or liability. According to Bloch and Geitner, ”machinery failures reveal a reaction chain ...

, and

reliability analysis Reliability, reliable, or unreliable may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Computing * Data reliability (disambiguation), a property of some disk arrays in computer storage * Reliability (computer networking), a category used to des ...

, in addition to WCCA . AEi Systems also has significant digital analysis offerings and capabilities in

signal integrity Signal integrity or SI is a set of measures of the quality of an electrical signal. In digital electronics, a stream of binary values is represented by a voltage (or current) waveform. However, digital signals are fundamentally analog signal, anal ...

, power integrity, and Worst Case Digital Analysis. AEi Systems engineers are recognized by

Aerospace Corporation The Aerospace Corporation is an American nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC). The corporation provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions to military, civil ...

as WCCA Subject Matter Experts. AEi Systems WCCA Subject Matter Experts worked with Aerospace Corporation to draft and set the current standards for WCCA of high reliability (or "hi-rel") circuitry.

History

The company's predecessor, Analytical Engineering, Inc., was founded in 1995. The company met with significant early success as the developer of simulation models and performed Worst Case Circuit Analysis on the International Space Station's power bus electronics. A series of satellite projects continued to keep founder Steve Sandler and Analytical Engineering busy, including Tempo,

Globalstar Globalstar, Inc. is an American telecommunications company that operates a satellite constellation in low Earth orbit (LEO) for satellite phone, low-speed data transmission and earth observation. The Globalstar second-generation constellation con ...

GOES The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), operated by the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service division, supports weather fo ...

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

, MCI, Omegasat and P-81. In 2002, with the idea of expanding the business and the management team, the businesses of Arizona-based Analytical Engineering, Inc. and a related New York-based company, Analytical Services, Inc., were combined and purchased by AEi Systems, LLC in transactions spearheaded by Charles Hymowitz (an electrical engineer formerly of

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas Corporation was a major American Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own ...

and Intusoft) and his business partner, Lee Weinberg. AEi Systems continues to improve its capabilities and to set the standard for performance of

Worst Case Circuit Analysis Worst-case circuit analysis (WCCA or WCA) is a cost-effective means of screening a design to ensure with a high degree of confidence that potential defects and deficiencies are identified and eliminated prior to and during test, production, and deli ...

, stress analysis, failure analysis and reliability analysis. AEi Systems has also expanded its digital analysis offerings and capabilities to include performance of in-depth reviews and analyses of the

and the power integrity of identified circuitry, boards and systems (in addition to Worst Case Digital Analysis). AEi Systems has senior engineers in several United States cities.

AEi Systems: Overview, Achievements and Projects

Divisions/Organization

The company has three, inter-related business lines: * Analysis:

(WCCA),

failure Failure is the social concept of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and is usually viewed as the opposite of success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. On ...

and reliability analyses;

, power integrity and other digital analyses. *

SPICE In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

Modeling: Modeling of complex

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

s for major IC manufacturers and to support AEi Systems' analysis efforts and reporting. * Software: Sale of licensed copies of the company's (i) Power IC Model Library for PSpice, and (ii) WCCA templates and tables.

Noteworthy achievements and facts

* Motorola University's "

six sigma Six Sigma (6σ) is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was introduced by American engineer Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1986. Six Sigma strategies seek to improve manufacturing quality by identifying and removin ...

class" on worst case analysis was created by AEi Systems. * AEi Systems performed important work on the LVPS power supply for the

Atlas Experiment ATLAS is the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. The experiment is designed to take advantage of ...

at the

Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...

(LHC) at

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

(the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator; the

revealed/confirmed the existence of the previously theoretical

Higgs Boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...

). * AEi Systems performed important analyses on the mission-critical Rubidium Frequency Standard (RFS) atomic clock and other components of the U.S. Air Force’s Global Positioning System GPS IIF and GPS III. * Most SPICE models for rad-hard Power ICs available on the Internet (or held in confidence) were created by AEi Systems, including those found on the websites of

ON Semiconductor ON Semiconductor Corporation (stylized and doing business as onsemi) is an American semiconductor supplier company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Products include power and signal management, logic, discrete, and custom devices for automotive, c ...

and

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

and those used via National Semiconductor's (now Texas Instruments') online WEBENCH tool. * AEi Systems analyzed the power bus for the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. * Many of the circuits and components analyzed by AEi Systems must keep within pre-set size and weight limitations and meet difficult "hi-rel" performance requirements at all times (notwithstanding harsh and varied operating environments).

Defense and Aerospace Projects

AEi Systems has been involved in the development and analysis of some of the most sophisticated and technically challenging power systems in the world, both in the space and military defense arena and also with respect to commercial and industrial applications. The company provides (or uses its proprietary) computer simulation models and performs WCCA on most projects. Many of the company's projects are for United States "classified" programs. Among the company's publicly known projects are: * BSAT * CMIS * Globalstar * GMI *

(incl. GPS IIF and GPS III) * HS-702 * Intellsat * Juno * MCI * Milstar * MSV *

MUOS The Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) is a United States Space Force narrowband military satellite, military communications satellite system that supports a worldwide, multi-service population of users in the ultra high frequency (UHF) band. ...

NPOESS The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) was to be the United States' next-generation satellite system that would monitor the Earth's weather, atmosphere, oceans, land, and near-space environment. NPOESS sate ...

* Omegasat * P1196 * P-81 * SMMA * SMU * Spaceway * Tempo * Virgo * XPC

Commercial and Scientific Projects

AEi Systems has also been active in commercial and industrial projects that do not involve space, military or defense. For example, AEi Systems has worked on: * Darwin, a 100 kW Remotely Operated underwater Vehicle (ROV) that operates underneath the North Sea under 17 kPSI at over 6 kM * The

at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator that revealed the

. * Projects for DeLL and EMC. * Projects involving international security systems. * Time-sensitive projects involving nuclear power plants.

SPICE Modeling

AEi Systems has produced robust

models for many major IC manufacturers, including Texas Instruments, ON Semiconductor,

Analog Devices Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), also known simply as Analog, is an American multinational corporation, multinational semiconductor company specializing in data conversion, signal processing, and power management technology, headquartered in Wilming ...

Linear Technology Linear Technology Corporation was an American semiconductor company that designed, manufactured and marketed high performance analog integrated circuits. Applications for the company's products included telecommunications, cellular telephones, ne ...

and National Semiconductor. Since 2005, AEi Systems' modeling business unit has produced and internationally distributed its 600-model Power IC Model Library for PSpice. 2007 Release The company has also developed a library of proprietary SPICE models (including models of space-qualified rad-hardened ICs) to support its performance WCCA services and reporting.

WCCA Training and Support

The company developed and taught the "six sigma" WCCA training class for Motorola University, and continues to teach WCCA techniques via on-line and on-site classes for customers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aei Systems Aerospace companies of the United States