ESA GNC Conference Papers Repository

High precision sun angle measurement has long been associated with costly, bulky and comparatively power hungry solutions. With the advent of TNO’s mini-DSS this is no longer necessary. What started out as the development of a fully autonomous wireless digital sunsensor a number of years ago, has lead to a sunsensor on chip ASIC development called the APS+. This CMOS device includes a 2-d array image sensor and processing electronics on the same chip. In the current approach, the device will neither be autonomous nor wireless. The design uses a conventional low drop out linear regulator to supply the mini-DSS from a pre-regulated (secondary) DC power source and an RS422 data link. The housing for the mini-DSS though will allow the implementation of several I/O options (including PnP interface). A prototype sensor has been built and was exposed to a performance test in a laboratory sun simulator set-up, demonstrating accuracy in the range of a few arc minutes and a resolution of less than one arc minute in the whole of its 100° x 100° FOV.