A Study on Thermal Modeling and Heat Load Mitigation for Satellite Electronic Components

Since most of the satellite components are using various EEE (Electrical, Electronic and Electromechanical) parts, the reliability of EEE parts acts very important in the satellite system. There are many factors that influence the reliability of EEE parts in the satellite system. Excessively dissipated heat can cause the failure of EEE parts and consequently, leading to a failure of total satellite system. In this paper, the thermal modeling using nodal network was compared with that using plate modeling to find out which one is the most suitable methodology. For a comparison, KOMPSAT- 1 SAR was modeled by two different modeling and the result was discussed. There was almost no difference in the numerical results between the two modeling methods. However, while it took much more time to perform thermal analysis using the nodal network modeling method, and the debugging was more difficult in the plate modeling method when the error is occurred. The computation time was considerably reduced by developing and implementing the input file format transfer code when using nodal network modeling method. It was found that the nodal network modeling method is suitable for the complicated components, such as SAR or transponder, because of its simple debugging ability. Excessive heat load was expected on some EEE parts of SAR such as high heat-dissipated diodes, transistors, and inductors due to increased power requirements of KOMPSAT-2 satellite system. The methods for the mitigation of heat load were studied through the design change of housing or the layout change of high power parts