www.vicorpower.com HARNESSING AI IN SPACE 11 www.power-mag.com Issue 1 2026 Power Electronics Europe Bedi cited breakthroughs like the AMD Versal adaptive compute acceleration platforms, a family of advanced FPGAs that deliver up to 133 TOPS using 8-bit integer inference models to reduce memory and computational overhead. This level of onchip processing can enable in-orbit AI where spacecraft and payloads make intelligent, in-situ decisions autonomously and in real-time – without downlinking gigabytes of data for ground-based postprocessing in the cloud. This incurs a latency and a financial cost. Spacechips AI1 processor board designed for in-orbit AI and machinelearning communication Spacechips serves a spectrum of space applications each with differing orbital, reliability and longevity requirements. Some payloads remain in low-Earth orbit for weeks or months, while others operate in geostationary orbit for a decade or more. Bedi vets the diverse needs of new space companies to help them determine if their requirements are better met by a $100,000 spacequalified FPGA or a $200 industrial-grade processor. By understanding the design tradeoffs, Spacechips steers its customers toward mission-optimized solutions. Spacechips AI1 Transponder Board is a smart, reconfigurable receiver and transmitter offering up to 133 TOPS of in-orbit AI and machine-learning performance. This capability will enable many new Earth-observation, in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing (ISAM), signals intelligence (SIGINT), and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and telecommunication applications for satellites. Given the constrained operating environment of space, AI-enabled computing has an acute need for precision power management. The need is compounded by the significantly expanding number, scope and variety of missions that require different kinds of spacecraft and a growing reliance on some form of solar power to deliver adequate power. These crafts range from geosynchronous satellites the size of a city bus to CubeSats and FemtoSats, which can be smaller than a shoebox with a mass of less than 100 grams. “These smaller spacecraft need to generate and harvest a lower amount of energy from their solar panels. We cannot simply design space electronics where all of the microchips consume 20 watts,” Bedi said. “We have to be much more intelligent when optimizing our design to ensure it meets the power budget that is supplied by the relevant spacecraft platform.” Vicor Factorized Power Architecture with current multipliers reduce size and weight— delivers top processor performance in space Spacechips has partnered with Vicor to provide the critical power architecture for in-orbit AI processing. “These microchips have an approximate core voltage of 0.8 volts with a TDC of 130 amps. How do you actually generate such a power rail?” Bedi asked. “That’s a huge problem to solve. We could take a conventional multiphase buck and connect ten of them in parallel, but then what you get is physically large and very complicated due to voltage averaging as a means of deriving the 0.8V” The value of the Vicor solution, according to Bedi, is that it is very small and power dense, which allows for smaller designs and greater system flexibility. Vicor Factorized Power Architecture (FPA™) is a power delivery system design that separates the functions of DC-DC conversion into independent modules. In radiation-tolerant Vicor modules, the BCM® bus converter provides the isolation and step-down transformation to 28V, the PRM™ regulator provides regulation to a VTM™ current multiplier that performs the 28V DC transformation to 0.8V. This allows for better efficiency, flexibility and higher power density, especially in highperformance computing applications. “Vicor FPA delivers a much more elegant, efficient solution in a very small form factor,” Bedi said. “I recently taught a course on power microelectronics for space applications, in which we showed the relative package size, current density and power density of Vicor DC-DC converters against all competing space-grid power products. The benefits of Vicor FPA are simply an order of magnitude superior to everything else on the market.” Bedi has incorporated Vicor FPA power Figure 1 In-orbit AI can detect temperature anomalies such as wildfires, volcanic activity or industrial accidents using Spacechips AI1 processor. Emergency management teams can also make faster, better-informed decisions about which fire prone areas are the most vulnerable.
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