Kalam Gen 1 Silicon Engine

The Kalam Gen 1 Silicon Engine is Kepler Nav's purpose-built radiation-hardened FPGA-based navigation processor that executes the complete UNIF-PNT autonomous navigation algorithm - including SOOP signal processing, star tracker image processing, XNAV timing, and Lie Group manifold state estimation - in a single chip-scale package consuming less than 1.5 Watts.

Named after Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the father of India's space and missile programs, the Kalam Gen 1 represents a departure from the traditional approach of running navigation algorithms on general-purpose radiation-hardened processors (e.g., RAD750, GR740). General-purpose processors achieve radiation hardness through expensive foundry processes (Silicon-on-Insulator, SOI) that lag commercial nodes by 2-3 technology generations, resulting in poor computational density and high power consumption.

The Kalam architecture achieves radiation hardness at the logic level using Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) implemented on commercial FPGA fabric. Every critical logic path is triplicated, with majority voter circuits at each stage output. SRAM configuration memory uses continuous ECC scrubbing to detect and correct radiation-induced bit-flips. This approach provides SEU immunity equivalent to foundry-hardened devices while leveraging the performance and density of modern commercial FPGA nodes.

Key specifications: - Navigation filter update rate: > 1 kHz (sub-millisecond) - Simultaneous SOOP satellite tracking: 40 channels - Star tracker processing: 50+ stars per frame at 10 Hz - Power consumption: < 1.5 W (entire navigation subsystem) - Radiation tolerance: 100 krad(Si) TID, SEU-immune via TMR - Form factor: Compatible with 1U CubeSat avionics bay