Study of the HV power supply modules for the CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP)

TL;DR

This paper evaluates compact high-voltage power supply modules for the CUSP CubeSat mission's X-ray polarimeter, focusing on their suitability for space applications.

Contribution

It presents testing results of HVM Technology's SMHV series HV power supplies, demonstrating their precision and compactness for CubeSat payloads.

Findings

The modules provide stable high-voltage outputs suitable for space instruments.

They are compact and fit within CubeSat size constraints.

The modules meet the power stability requirements for the CUSP mission.

Abstract

The CUbesat Solar Polarimeter (CUSP) project is a CubeSat mission orbiting the Earth aimed to measure the linear polarization of solar flares in the hard X-ray band by means of a Compton scattering polarimeter. CUSP will allow to study the magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in the flaring magnetic structures of our star. CUSP is a project in the framework of the Alcor Program of the Italian Space Agency aimed to develop new CubeSat missions. CUSP undergoing the Phase B started in December 2024 that will last for 12 month. The Compton polarimeter of the CUSP payload performs coincidence measurements between plastic scintilaltors and GaGG(Ce) crystals to derive the polarization of X-rays. These sensors are readout by Multi Anode Photomultiplier Tubes (MAPMTs) and Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs) respectively. Both sensors need an HV power supply up to -1~kV (for the MAPMT) and +500~V (for the APD). We tested precision regulated High Voltage DC/DC Converters by HVM Technology Inc. with Sub-Miniature Case Size ($0.85''\times0.85''\times0.60''$) of the SMHV series. These modules are compact and suited for CubeSat missions.