Parts Agency Newsletter 01/2017

Dear Readers of the Tesat-Spacecom Parts Agency Newsletter,

as for previous issues we have collected some news and insights into our way of working in the Parts Agency and the EEE-Centre at Tesat. We constantly strive to further improve our services and capabilities to the benefit of our customers. Some of these improvements are presented below. It is great to receive positive feedback: we are very proud to have received again – for the second time – the award of Rockwell Collins as “Value Add Supplier of the Year”.

For any questions, for your feedback or topics you wish to be addressed in the next newsletter:
please contact Dr. Frederik Küchen.

E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Phone: +49 (0) 7191 - 930 - 2414


Rockwell Collins presents Tesat-Spacecom with 2017 Value Supplier of the Year award

pa nl 01 17 rockwell awardTesat-Spacecom was awarded with the 2017 Value Add Supplier of the Year Award by Rockwell Collins on 3th of April, 2017. Rockwell Collins and Tesat-Spacecom representatives celebrated the recognition with a recent on-site event at Tesat-Spacecom. Since the award is teamwork collaboration, nearly all contributors for this outstanding performance attended the award presentation.

The Supplier of the Year award is a Rockwell Collins acknowledgement of significant contributions made during the year by a supplier based upon their quality, delivery, total cost of ownership, lead time and customer service performance.

According to Frederik Kuechen, “It is an exceptional honor to be distinguished as one of Rockwell Collins’ top-performing suppliers in a given year from their supply base of more than 2,500 direct and indirect suppliers.”

Tesat-Spacecom appreciates Rockwell Collins’ recognition, especially in the Parts Agency business. This is the second year in a row that Tesat has earned this recognition, which further substantiates their commitment to delivering excellent customer performance and satisfaction.


Our Supplier Survey Program

pa nl 01 17 supplier surveyIt is well known in the space community that the late discovery of an EEE parts non conformance is very expensive. The non quality costs are going up by a factor of 10 on each detection step, starting at EEE manufacturer to incoming inspection to equipment assembly to spacecraft, not to mention impossible in-orbit repair or catastrophic end customer consequences.

To avoid late occurrence of failures we have implemented a Supplier Survey Program years ago. It is an initiative to prevent EEE part problems and it is covering more than 100 manufacturers which is the majority of EEE manufacturers’ portfolio.

The main objectives of the supplier survey are:

  • IMPLEMENT an immediate IMPROVEMENT process
  • NO RE-OCCURENCE of already known problem whatever the manufacturer
  • PREVENTIVE ACTIONS at manufacturer level, to detect as early as possible potential problem
  • REDUCE THE OCCURENCE of EEE parts failures and technical problems

The principles of the supplier survey are:

  • the manufacturer is evaluated as high, medium or low risk (regularly reconsidered)
  • based on the risk level, the survey meeting frequency can vary between 6 months and 2 years
  • during the survey meeting we:
    • pragmatically assess and check the EEE parts manufacturer quality performances
    • review with the manufacturer how to prevent issues previously met on their parts (including TESAT Parts Agency Issues)
    • review with the manufacturer how to prevent generic issues on the parts families
  • Improvement is done in long term PARTNERSHIP with the manufacturer.

The long term statistic from the EEE Centre shows a significant and steady reduction of EEE parts related non quality costs over the last years. The non quality costs are the yellow histograms, the blue ones are the costs for the survey program and the green line is the number of manufacturers under survey.


New lab equipment for the opening of plastic encapsulated EEE components

pa nl 01 17 new lab equipmentTo meet the emerging demand for physical analyses on plastic encapsulated EEE components Tesat has expanded its lab capability by specialized equipment. Using a combination of laser ablation and an automated chemical wet etch we can now accomplish a precise and repeatable opening of plastic encapsulated parts in accordance with the applicable ESA and MIL standards. An electrolytic protective process enables us to also handle parts containing copper elements with minimum damage thus maintaining the bond integrity and electrical function of the analyzed specimens.

 

 

 


Radiation Testing and Construction Analyses of EEE components for New Space

pa nl 01 17 radiation testThe growing field of New Space resorts to EEE components which were neither designed nor ever tested for radiation. Tesat EEE Engineering and Radiation Team are combining their solid radiation testing expertise with the labs capabilities for decapsulation and opening, including the new ones for plastic devices, to be able to test Single-Event Effects on very complex plastic devices for several New Space projects. Different methods like laser ablation, localized wet etching or precision milling have been used to precisely reach the most radiation sensitive regions of complex stacked devices keeping them fully functional as required for SEE tests.

Construction Analyses of these components are also normally required for New Space projects in order to fully understand the device construction and its materials. Tesat EEE Engineering and Radiation Team is also involved in several campaigns for New Space projects which have enabled us to acquire the necessary experience in this new field.

 

 


MTG Industrial Convocation

pa nl 01 17 mtgIn October 2016 ESA invited major collaborating companies to the two days lasting MTG (Meteosat Third Generation) Industrial Convocation which took place in Noordwijk, NL. Goal of this event was to present the overview of the MTG programme, the current project status and that a cross section of involved enterprises congregate and share their experiences and associated challenges and risks by holding presentations and conversations in between. The different programme contributors sent delegations of the project management, design, production or quality to the convocation which lead to a total number of participants of more than 80 people.

The MTG series are geostationary meteorological satellites, are composed of in total six satellites, four imaging (MTG-I) and two sounding (MTG-S) and will provide weather and climate data for Europe for the next twenty years. The imaging satellites will scan the earth every ten minutes with 16 spectral channels, the sounding satellites will provide detailed vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature and humidity. For this series, Thales Alenia Space France is the prime contractor in partnership with OHB Germany.

Members of the Parts Agency of Tesat-Spacecom attended at this convocation as well as Tesat forms a Coordinated Parts Procurement Agency (CPPA) for this programme. By this, Tesat is responsible for the procurement of EEE components for both instrument and platform users over the last six years and supports them in the selection, engineering, procurement and testing of these parts and builds a consortium together with ALTER Technology due to the size of the activities. In addition, the CPPA is the interface to the primes and ESA for all tasks related to EEE components. At the event a presentation of the CPPA and associated services was held as well as the impressive statistics of the procured components and activities were shown.


DLR Conference on EEE Parts

From 4th to 5th of April 2017 German industry and German users of EEE parts were invited by the DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) to their yearly conference on EEE parts. The conference is very popular and was visited with nearly 110 participants very well.

For this event in Jena, the Tesat-Spacecom Parts Agency has participated with presentations and has contributed to the exhibition.

Registered users will get the information by using the link https://teamsites-extranet.dlr.de/qp/EEE-Raumfahrt-Bauteile.


Dates

  • 17. - 21. July 2017
    NSREC 2017 (Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference), New Orleans, Louisiana
  • 25. - 28. Sept. 2017
    ESREF 2017 (28th European Symposium on Reliability of Electron Devices, Failure Physics and Analysis), Bordeaux, France
  • 01. - 06. Oct. 2017
    RADECS 2017 (Radiation Effects on Components & Systems), Geneva, Switzerland
  • 24. - 26. Oct. 2017
    Space Tech Expo Europe, Bremen, Germany
  • 14. - 17. Nov. 2017
    SEMICON Europa, Munich, Germany

 

Yours Tesat Parts Agency

© Tesat-Spacecom GmbH & Co. KG, 2022
Contact
Tesat-Spacecom GmbH & Co. KG
Gerberstr. 49
71522 Backnang
Germany