Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions announced the LeanREL™ product family, designed to meet the needs of small satellite and non-traditional spacecraft manufacturers. The new family is well-suited for spaceflight, military and aerospace applications that must operate and survive in harsh environments, yet be cost competitive.

The LeanREL portfolio comprises microprocessors, microcontrollers, memory and interface ICs using the same silicon and QML pedigree as Cobham’s HiRel products. Cobham has more than a 30-year heritage supplying radiation-hardened, QML-level reliability products, backed by space systems design expertise.

With the expanding range of missions, including LEO constellations, systems designers are seeking IC supplies that balance cost, reliability and radiation hardness. This has resulted in a tiered cost versus performance profile: off-the-shelf ICs at the low end, QML at the high end and LeanREL in between. A benefit of Cobham’s LeanREL approach is that the components retain an identical pin out and footprint to their QML counterparts, enabling system designers to develop platforms that span from commercial constellations to QML-level missions.

The LeanREL ICs offer up to 60 percent cost savings, depending on quantity, while extending mission duration well beyond that provided by typical off-the-shelf ICs.

Cobham plans to expand the LeanREL family, releasing a suite of new products this year. An Arm® microcontroller and CAN transceiver are available now, with a LEON microprocessor, LVDS receiver and driver, SDRAM, NOR flash memory, voltage supervisor and additional products planned during the rest of the year.

“Cobham has created LeanREL as a cost-effective QML alternative to address the growing need to decrease costs while finding just the right level of reliability and radiation-hardness for new classes of missions.” — Kevin Jackson, VP and general manager, Space and Semiconductor Solutions, Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions