During the day, Thales Alenia Space He presented the role that his team plays in Spain in the design and manufacture of electronic systems prepared to work in space.

A particularly demanding environment, where the components must withstand radiation, extreme temperature changes and years of operation without the possibility of repair.

A company specialized in space systems

Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture that has around 8,000 professionals and develops solutions for telecommunications, navigation, earth observation, defence, scientific exploration and orbital infrastructure.

In 2025 it reached a consolidated income of 2,360 million euros and maintained a presence in seven European countries.

Its systems are present in satellites and missions that allow connecting territories, knowing the exact position of people and vehicles, studying the planet, better managing natural resources and exploring the solar system.

These apps reflect your vision for a space for life, based on using space technology to contribute to a more connected and sustainable life on and off Earth.

In Spain, the company has been operating since 1988 and has approximately 460 employees. Its facilities have 2,500 square meters of clean areas for the manufacture, integration and testing of space equipment and systems.

According to the data presented during the meeting, the Spanish subsidiary invests 27% of its activity in research and development and has participated in about 670 satellites.

Electronics that allow a satellite to work

Behind a satellite there are numerous electronic systems in charge of collecting information, processing it, controlling instruments, managing communications and making decisions. These teams must function in a coordinated manner and maintain their reliability throughout the mission.

Thales Alenia Space in Spain works in different parts of this technology chain. Its activity includes the development of radio frequency equipment, digital electronics, data processing, control systems, visible and infrared cameras, observation instruments and embarked software.

It also designs systems intended to manage high-precision clocks, control mechanisms, secure data concentrated, or process images directly on board the satellite. This last capacity is especially relevant, since it allows analyzing part of the information in the space itself before sending it to Earth.

Process the information before sending it to Earth.

Observation satellites can generate enormous amounts of images and data. Sending all that unfiltered information requires time, bandwidth, and power.

The so-called edge computing allows part of the processing to be transferred to the satellite itself. In this way, the system can select the most relevant images, identify certain patterns or discard information that is not useful before starting the transmission.

In practice, this can speed up the response to fires, floods, spills, environmental changes, or other situations that require rapid information obtained from space.

On-board processing can also increase satellite autonomy. Instead of continually relying on instructions sent from ground stations, they can analyze certain data and adapt its operation more quickly.

Thales Alenia Space in Spain incorporates these capabilities within a catalog that includes multifunctional processing, image processing, shipped artificial intelligence and secure data management systems.

Design chips capable of surviving in space.

One of the main challenges of spatial microelectronics is radiation. Outside the protection provided by the Earth’s atmosphere, electronic components are exposed to particles capable of degrading their operation, modifying data or causing permanent failures.

For this reason, the chips destined for space cannot be designed exactly the same as those used in a computer, a vehicle or a mobile phone. It is necessary to study how radiation affects each component and apply measures to avoid errors during the mission.

Thales Alenia Space conducts trials against ions, protons and cumulative doses of radiation. From these analyzes, it develops protection mechanisms such as duplication or triplication of functions, periodic error correction and reconfiguration of devices.

In a simple way, the system incorporates different ways to continue functioning even if a particle temporarily alters part of the circuit.

This resilience is essential in missions that can last for many years and found thousands or millions of kilometers from Earth.

ASIC and FPGA: Circuits adapted to each mission

Within its microelectronic capabilities, the company mainly works with two types of devices: ASICs and FPGAs.

ASIC

An ASIC is an integrated circuit designed to perform a specific function. It can be compared to a tool specifically made for a specific task. This specialization allows you to optimize performance, energy consumption and the space occupied within the satellite.

FPGA

An FPGA, on the other hand, is a device that can be programmed to execute different functions. Its main advantage is flexibility, since it allows the system to be adapted to the needs of each mission and even, under certain conditions, to modify its configuration after launch.

Thales Alenia Space in Spain accumulates experience in the design of more than 21 ASIC and more than a hundred developments based on FPGA from Microchip, with around 500 units already operational in space.

It has also developed dozens of FPGA designs and AMD-Xilinx programmable systems for projects like Galileo and geostationary telecommunications satellites.

Its capabilities include safe reconfiguration on board. This technology allows you to update or rearrange certain electronic functions without the need to physically recover the satellite, something impossible once it is in orbit. The company indicates that it already has more than ten FPGAs from this manufacturer in flight and a proprietary solution to carry out this reconfiguration safely.

A competitive advantage based on the entire value chain

Thales Alenia Space’s proposal is not limited to component design. The company has the capabilities to develop the system architecture, design the electronics, manufacture the equipment, integrate them and subject them to the necessary tests before launch.

In its Spanish facilities it has clean rooms to manufacture and integrate equipment, optical detection laboratories and means to carry out thermal vacuum tests, electromagnetic compatibility and vibration. It also has a room prepared to integrate satellites, payloads and instruments of observation and science.

This combination of microelectronic design, systems engineering, production and validation represents a major competitive advantage.

It allows to verify from the first phases that each component will function correctly within the set and that it will withstand the real conditions of a space mission.

In addition, the application of space-specific standards makes it easier for designs to meet common requirements for safety, quality, radiation protection, and reliability.

How does this technology translate into everyday life?

Although these developments are used hundreds or thousands of kilometers from the earth’s surface, their results are part of numerous daily activities.

The shipped electronic equipment allows telecommunications satellites to provide connectivity in remote areas, facilitate audiovisual emissions and support communication networks. Navigation systems help determine the position of vehicles, ships, planes and mobile devices.

Electronics for land observation makes it possible to collect and process images to study the climate, control crops, monitor infrastructure, manage emergencies or analyze the evolution of the oceans and ecosystems.

In the scientific field, these systems allow controlling instruments that study other planets, observe the universe and collect data that expands our knowledge about space.

Innovation is not only about manufacturing more powerful components. It consists of making them efficient, reliable, safe and capable of continuing to function for years in extreme conditions.

Spanish microelectronics to face the challenges of space

The presentation of Thales Alenia Space at the I Matchmaking Day showed the weight that the microelectronics developed in Spain has within the European space industry.

Its experience in integrated circuits, programmable devices, data processing, on-board artificial intelligence and radiation protection allows the development of equipment capable of responding to the needs of the new space missions.

Through meetings like the I Matchmaking Day, MicronanoSpain It contributes to connecting these capabilities with companies, technology centers, universities and European initiatives. The objective is to promote new collaborations and strengthen a national value chain capable of designing, manufacturing and validating strategic technologies for sectors such as space, telecommunications, mobility and land observation.

Photographs of: https://www.thalesaleniaspace.com/en

During the meeting, the participating entities presented some of the technologies and projects they are working on.

Among them was Begi, a solution developed by IKERLAN It is inspired by the visual system of insects to help intelligent robots and machines interpret the movement in a faster, more accurate, and efficient way.

Begi moves an idea inspired by biology to artificial vision: register only what changes to react earlier and consume less energy.

IKERLAN, technology oriented to the needs of the industry

Ikerlan is a technology center that has been working since 1974 on the generation and transfer of knowledge towards companies. Integrated in the Mondragón Corporation and a member of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance, it develops solutions aimed at sectors such as advanced manufacturing, mobility, energy, electronics, or artificial intelligence applied to industry.

This connection between research and industry is very present at Begi, a project that combines advanced sensors, microelectronics, and algorithms to respond to one of the great challenges of physical artificial intelligence: getting machines to understand what is happening around them and react in real time.

A camera that does not need to capture complete images

Conventional cameras generate a succession of complete photographs, although most of the visual scene has not changed. As a result, much of the time and energy used in processing this data is not useful.

Begi uses a different working principle: its neuromorphic sensor only records the variations of luminous intensity that occur in each pixel as a consequence of the movement of objects, similar to the operation of the retina’s photoreceptors.

Thanks to this operation, Begi acquires a much lower volume of data than a conventional camera, reducing the energy consumption associated with its processing and being able to detect extremely fast movements with a microsecond latency.

In addition, by functioning each pixel independently, it avoids much of the blur that appears when recording objects at high speed and can operate with different levels of light in different regions of the scene.

Less data does not mean less information: in neuromorphic vision, it can precisely mean the information that matters.

Insect inspiration to understand space

Developed by Ikerlan, Begi combines a microlens matrix with a neuromorphic sensor to capture the direction of light and perceive the world in 4D: position (x, y, z) and time. Inspired by the compound eyes of insects, it is a passive, monocular system without moving parts that natively estimates the position and movement of objects in metric units, without the need to emit light to the environment.

This metric information allows you to anticipate trajectories, estimate collision times, avoid obstacles and ensure safe interactions between machines, people and other moving elements.

In addition, its configurable optical stack adapts the working range from a few millimeters to several meters, which makes Begi a versatile solution for industrial and autonomous robotics applications.

Less information to respond faster

One of Begi’s main competitive advantages is its ability to process information directly on the device itself. The prototype developed by Ikerlan integrates the neuromorphic vision sensor with a patented FPGA-based processing architecture, optimized to exploit the advantages of neuromorphic vision and minimize latency and energy consumption.

This technology has been developed within the framework of the European Nimbleai project, whose objective is to promote a new generation of more efficient artificial intelligence based on neuromorphic technology.

As a demonstration, Ikerlan’s team used a fan rotating at about 1,000 revolutions per minute. Begi was able to rebuild the 3D geometry of the blades in real time and accurately estimate its turning speed, an impossible task for conventional vision systems due to the high speed of rotation and extremely difficult even for high-speed cameras, whose huge volume of data makes processing difficult. in real time.

The practical advantage is in reacting more quickly using much less data.

What can this technology be used for?

Neuromorphic vision can play a relevant role in the development of the so-called physical artificial intelligence, that is, systems capable of perceiving the real world, making decisions, and acting on it.

Among its possible applications is the navigation of mobile robots and drones, which need to detect obstacles and anticipate movements. It can also be useful in autonomous vehicles, driving assistance systems, robotic arms, or machinery that works together with people.

In industry, Begi could facilitate monitoring of high-speed moving components, control of manufacturing processes, or early detection of anomalies in engines, turbines, and other rotary elements.

Its reduced consumption and its ability to process information locally can also favor its incorporation to autonomous devices with limited energy resources or privacy requirements.

The practical advantage lies in being able to react more quickly using much less data. This would result in safer robots, more efficient industrial machinery, and perception systems capable of working in conditions where a traditional camera would have difficulties.

From research to new industrial solutions

Begi is currently in the development and technological validation phase. Its evolution towards the market is based on a model of co-development with companies, which will allow to specialize the technology for different niches of application and accelerate its industrial adoption.

Its potential has already been recognized by the industry. The report Neuromorphic Computing, Memory and Sensing 2024 of Yole It identifies Begi, the Nimbleai project and 3D neuromorphic vision as disruptive technologies and places their maturity for industrial applications from 2027.

Research on neuromorphic sensors targets machines capable of perceiving movement with closer precision and efficiency to biological systems.

Through initiatives such as the I Matchmaking Day, MicronanoSpain It favors the knowledge and the connection between the agents of the Spanish ecosystem of the semiconductors, giving visibility to capacities that can become future collaborations, industrial developments, and applications with an impact on society.

Photos are the property of https://www.ikerlan.es/