2001- custom electronics

Since 2001 we design and manufacture high performance analog, digital, power and RF electronics.

Acies is equipped with the most up to date laboratory instrumentation (high speed scopes, spectrum analyzers, EMC pre-compliance equipment), as well as an SMD assembly line, thus providing a complete service ranging from product design and certification to its production and test.
Acies is specialised in:

Cubesat avionics

Motherboard and EPS of a cubesat constellation. EPS, with MPPC battery charger, analogue protection and temperature regulation loop. Fully hot redundant power supplies for double MCUs, radios and sensors. We’ve also designed the related BSP, with signal hard real time processing and conversion for voltages, currents with DMA. We started the FW project for the customer and licensed our ECSS compliant RTOS, in order to easily port to this platform previously written FW. We finally designed the bootloader with encrypted and secure and robust package format.

ECSS-compliant software library and RTOS

Our software and firmware is based on a C++ library, continuously improved since 1997. Albeit started for industrial applications, it proved to be very close to space standards, then made fully ECSS compliant. This library includes cryptography, serialization/de-serialization (binary, JSON, XML), NVM access, advanced math, signal processing and control, and a GUI that can run in MCUs with very limited resources and SPI displays. Also, a custom minimal RTOS is available for Cortex-M cores (M4, M7, M33) and Risc-V cores (RV32, RV64) still ECSS compliant. Bootloader with encrypted, secure and robust package format.

Nuclear detectors

Multi-channel muon and neutron detectors with plastic scintillating fibers, SiPM and trans-conductance amplifiers. Each channel has individually adjustable offsets and thresholds. An FPGA+MCU digital section handles signal digitization, communication and trigger logic. The voltage reference is temperature-stabilized, giving a true 16bit overall accuracy. Optional 14bit 80Msps A/D conversion stage.

Lithium batteries with patented BMS

We invented a new topology of difference amplifier for LiPo batteries BMS, capable of 100µV accuracy, while maintaining µA current absorption when off. Fully analogue and mixed digital implementations are available. This design has already been used in demanding applications such as medical devices, automotive and industrial batteries for AGVs. This topology can be designed with space and mil components, so it fits space applications perfectly.

FPGA and Risc-V related technologies

Soft core (RV32, RV64) for FPGAs, RTOS, peripherals such as SPI, I2C, UART, timers, PWM generator, Δ-Σ AD/DA modulators, decimation filters.

IOT

LoRa based IOT nodes and gateways (LTE, WiFi, Ethernet, USB). Sub-GHz 433MHz, 868MHz and 2.4GHz. WiFi and FSK nodes. For environmental, agricoltural applications.

Discharge lamps drivers

Fully integrated units, up to 500A 400V, 12kV trigger, 100÷500mA simmer, including PFC.

Digital Acquisition Systems

Starting from the need for a synchronized system yet affordable including cameras, digital I/O and analogue readout, we designed a proprietary DAQ system, built around x86, Linux and STM32H7. The GPS in the main unit allows precise time stamping.

Specialty LED lights

In 2001, we stared with the ESA/CHECS project, designing and manufacturing electronics for gas sensors readout. The goal of the activity was a ground demonstrator for a plant growth system, measuring the concentration of several gasses. As a side project, we developed a growth system, capable of driving the life cycle of beans using only artificial light. At that time, Acies was one of the only two companies offering such technology, worldwide.

In the subsequent years, Acies has developed lamps with spectra engineered for niche-applications, ranging from near-IR to UV, up to 264nm. Among these, sun simulators for photovoltaic array testing.