Optimized Design of Embedded Air Coil for Small Satellites with Various Dimensions

Active attitude control systems using a novel six-layer electromagnetic embedded printed air coil for small satellites with various dimensions are presented in this paper. The proposed designs are optimized in terms of available area, generated torque, power dissipation, and generated magnetic dipole moment. The designed printed air coils are the best choice for small satellites’ attitude stabilization in terms of their modularity, reconfigurability, lower cost, lesser space occupation, and low mass. The printed air coil is designed and analyzed for three small satellites with dimensions 10, 13, and . The design is implemented with commercial off-the-shelf microdevices that are inexpensive, reliable, and easily accessible. The printed air coil is integrated in internal layers of printed circuit board, which does not require additional space on the spacecraft. The proposed air coil with additional configurability features (, hybrid) provides more flexibility to the design aspects by changing the arrangement through the onboard processor according to mission requirements. Electrothermal analysis of the air coil module is done to keep the thermals in check and validate its feasibility. Time-varying rotational operation of nanosatellites is performed to test the rotation time for spin-stabilized satellites. Significant performance parameters like generated magnetic moment, resultant torque, and power dissipation are evaluated and compared with the already commercial state-of-the-art.