Design of Thruster Driver Module using Synchronous Design Technique in VHDL

Abstract: A thruster is a propulsive device or an actuator used in the spacecraft. The primary function of the thrusters is to control the attitude and orbit of the satellite. This paper presents the design of thruster driver module using synchronous design technique in VHDL. A 1 MHz common clock is used to synchronize the design interfaces of the thruster driver module. By implementing this new synchronous design technique, all the signals are synchronized and sampled at a well-defined clock interval. The simulation results show, the synchronous design technique implemented is more reliable, efficient and can be best used for testing when compared to the existing asynchronous method. The synthesis results show the number of core cells is being reduced, thus minimizing the area when compared to the existing asynchronous design.

Keywords: Thruster Driver Module, Synchronous Design, Common Clock, Interface Designs, Trigger Pulses.