Overview

Bradford's range of sun sensors have been trusted for decades as highly performing and reliable options for missions from LEO to the harshest orbits, granting satellites sun vector information for both operational solar array pointing and safe mode power-positive recovery responses.

The detecting element at the heart of each Bradford sun sensor is a p-n junction silicon photodiode, covered with a thick coverglass giving innate radiation hardness. Drift effects are well characterised and corrected to give a consistent and predictable result over the lifetime of the sensors.

Most Bradford sun sensors are passive devices and have limited failure modes. They interface via well-defined analogue signal interfaces direct to your OBC. Each model had provisions for alignment correction.

As with all Bradford products, these are manufactured in an AS9100-compliant facility and come with full quality traceability of constituent materials and components, all of which are selected to meet ESA S-class standards. They have proven their reliability across thousands of cumulative years on orbit. Bradford's expertise in sun sensors extends nearly half a century, with our products tracing their origins to 1975, since when they have been in continuous manufacture.