Innoflight, Inc. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: Encryption is a commonly overlooked critical technology especially for small satellites.

Description

Encryption is a commonly overlooked critical technology especially for small satellites. A miniaturized, low-volume, low-mass yet flexible encryption unit is required for operationally-useful small missions. Currently, there are no Type 1 certified encryption units that are small enough for use on CubeSat-sized spacecraft, which greatly restricts the utility of the very small architecture. Innoflight is currently nearing completion of its first generation CubeSat encryption unit, the Compact Encryption Unit 100 (CEU100). In the proposed Phase 1 project, Innoflight will expand its development of miniature End Cryptographic Unit (ECU) technology for small satellite applications by developing a next generation design. The next generation Miniature ECU will include a number of key innovations, including: High performance operation, including 100 Mbps full-duplex operation at less than 1W of required power and radiation hard to at least 100 krad. The Miniature ECU will be implemented in as an independent daughter card (for certification purposes) at a target of 3"x 2"that can be integrated onto an existing radio or C & DH board to prevent the need for a dedicated crypto slice or package. The Miniature ECU will have sufficient resources so that it can be used as the C & DH computer on a very small spacecraft as needed. The Miniature ECU shall be capable of operating as in independent subsystem with the following features: operational mode configuration including over-the-air rekeying, support for variable s/c voltage, selectable input and output data rates, standard ciphertext and plaintext ports to support the vast majority of bus component hardware, and single event functional interrupt (SEFI) mitigation.