KySat-1 update: Protecting the satellite's electronics

It's been a while since we have posted any detail regarding the status of KySat-1 - we have been pretty busy testing the cube.

One of the most recent accomplishments, however, has been the completion of the conformal coating application process.

Conformal coating is a very thin (~3 mil) acrylic coating applied to all of our hardware. This coating is used to protect the electronics during the rough vibration of launch, as well as during handling and assembly. It is a small insulating layer that will protect against electrical static discharge. Should a small metal piece break, it could prevent a short from happening.

We have been working with Byran Gillespie from Creation Technologies here in Lexington who helped us pick out, design the procedure, and perform all the coating. It's a delicate process. For example, you want to ensure you mask off all areas that you don't wanted coated, such as the connectors, and inspect the boards to ensure they are covered exactly as intended. We do this to ensure that no coating is applied to any of the connectors where we need to make a solid electrical contact. On orbit, we also don't want to block any of the Sun's energy, so we don't want any coating on top of our solar cells.

The manufacture of the coating also includes a UV additive to the coating, which will cause the coating to fluoresce under black light. A couple of pictures with two engineering model boards - one coated and one not - are included here. In the solar cell array picture all of the boards are coated. The final picture shows all of the coated hardware under the black light. Click the images to enlarge.

Tyler