seeking input on a solid state relay

[Samudra Haque]

Hi Amrad folks, I hope all is well with our community, and may I wish all a
Happy New Year today. As some of you may know, my first project destined
for space is on the drawing board now, hopefully I can finish the design of
a four channel micro-cathode arc thruster control system in time to
fabricate two engineering models and test before this coming May. Maybe I
will finish my Ph.D shortly after that ... or not ...

I'm looking at ways to reduce part count, part size from the old testbed.
Similar circuit, but goal is to minimize footprint (I only have 95 mm x 95
mm x 20 mm) . One of the key ugly components were the old 12V relays. In
fact, I used.. 3V logic > 5V opto > 12V transistor > 12V relay, and the
resultant picture says it all... big big and bigger.

I'm looking at mouser.com, for sources of solid state relays, with a
current capacity of about 5A-6A and a low driving voltage, suitable for 3V
use. The only catch is that I am wondering if vertical orientation is not
better for me, as foot print ... Also, are there packages that support
several relays in one block? could be good for a clean PCB layout,  need to
have four sets of 2 relays apiece.

This is a university project, and unfunded, meaning I'm on my own, so
anything I can do to save money in construction ..

By the way, I played with LTSPICE IV, cool, and LTM4605 is interesting
chip. DC/DC module, programmable. comments? I needed switched 15V from the
unregulated battery bus...

73 de X

[image: Inline image 1]
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