The Planck/LFI Radiometer Electronics Box Assembly

TL;DR

The paper details the design, development, and testing of the REBA, a control and data processing computer for the LFI instrument on the Planck satellite, emphasizing its hardware, software, and verification processes.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive technical summary of the REBA's design, integration, and verification, including software architecture and the development of the compressor module.

Findings

Hardware and software meet all specifications

Successful verification for flight operation

Multiple models tested and validated

Abstract

The Radiometer Electronics Box Assembly (REBA) is the control and data processing on board computer of the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) of the Planck mission (ESA). The REBA was designed and built incorporating state of the art processors, communication interfaces and real time operating system software in order to meet the scientific performance of the LFI. We present a technical summary of the REBA, including a physical, functional, electrical, mechanical and thermal description. Aspects of the design and development, the assembly, the integration and the verification of the equipment are provided. A brief description of the LFI on board software is given including the Low-Level Software and the main functionalities and architecture of the Application Software. The compressor module, which has been developed as an independent product, later integrated in the application, is also described in this paper. Two identical engineering models EM and AVM, the engineering qualification model EQM, the flight model FM and flight spare have been manufactured and tested. Low-level and Application software have been developed. Verification activities demonstrated that the REBA hardware and software fulfil all the specifications and perform as required for flight operation.