ESA BIC Lens R&D: Sunsensors for satellites and terrestrial systems
Meet Lens R&D at ESA space solutions Innovation Village at the Paris Space Show. The start-up from ESA Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) Noordwijk produces high reliability sunsensors for space applications, small enough to be used on even on smaller satellites but also good enough to be used on big ones.
The Paris Space Week takes place 2-3 April 2019 at the Museum of Air and Space, at Paris Le Bourget.
ESA BIC Nord France will be presenting the opportunities offered by ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions together with a number of ESA BIC start-ups at the ESA space solutions Innovation Village pavilion.
LENS Research and Development from ESA BIC Noordwijk
Lens Research and Development (Lens R&D) is specialized in high reliability sunsensors for space and terrestrial applications that can be cost effectively produced in larger quantities.
Founded 2012, incubated at ESA BIC Noordwijk and hosted at the Space Business Innovation Park near ESTEC in Noordwijk, the company has now grown to six people and is currently focusing on sunsensors for space applications only.
Lens R&D primarily activity is on research and design, and outsources the production to suppliers using the latest design principles and advanced production technologies.
Excellent operation is guaranteed on the high-precision machining in series production of the housings, wafer scale manufacturing of the membranes, housing integrated connectors and vision based pick-and-place assembly. Technologies developed to cater for large volume terrestrial solar panel applications have led to increase the cost effectiveness for space applications.
“Our customers have come to expect reliable, cost effective and small solutions from Lens R&D, and the new developments of a sensor called IBIS is expected to bring exactly this,” says Johan Leijtens, founder, CEO and System Engineer at Lens R&D.
“Based on a single chip dedicated sensor to be developed by Systematic design b.v. the IBIS is to be a true digital sunsensor which is not affected by Earth's albedo and has a digital interface to the on-board computer.”
The space portfolio includes the passive analogue fine sunsensor BiSon64, the BiSon64-B with added baffle and reduced albedo sensitivity and the top-model BiSon 64-ET-B with extended temperature range.
The BiSon64-B have been sold to Luxspace ESAIL, SSTL Vesta/Earth-I/ELSA-D/DT-1 and ST Electronics Teleos-2 and are designed in by several other customers.
The BiSon 64-ET-B is currently undergoing qualification under ESA GSTP contract which is planned to be completed by Q2/2019.
Lens R&D will supply 20 flight and 2 flight spare units to the ESA PROBA-3 formation flying mission.
The goal is to develop select and forget sunsensors that are capable enough to satisfy even the most stringent requirements, and affordable enough to be selected without punching a hole in project budgets.
ESA space solutions Innovation Village at Paris Space Show 2019
At the ESA space solutions Innovation Village at Paris Space Show 2-3 April 2019, ESA BIC Nord France will present what the 20 ESA Business Incubation Centres can offer entrepreneurs throughout Europe and help to turn innovative space-related ideas into new viable companies.
Meet Lens R&D and many other ESA BIC start-ups from France, Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany at the ESA space solutions Innovation Village and learn more about their product and services. The village provides a look into great examples of aerospace technology systems and services developed by European start-ups with visionary goals.
On 2 April at 6pm presentations of the opportunities in space and space spin-offs will be illustrated by speakers from CNES, ESA BIC Nord France and the ESA BIC start-up E-odyn. This will be followed by the announcement of the Start-up Challenge Winner, the ESA BIC Nord France opening announcement and a networking event.
World's largest ecosystem for space-related entrepreneurship
ESA BIC Nord France is part of ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions programme and its network of 20 ESA BICs throughout Europe that co-funds projects and start-ups while offering technical and business support to companies that seek to deliver rapid innovation and raise private investment. Overall ESA spends €400 million a year on strengthening the competitiveness of European and Canadian companies in the global markets not only for satellite communications but also for downstream applications.
The 20 ESA Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs) are forming the largest ecosystem in the world for space-related entrepreneurship and has fostered over 700 start-ups throughout Europe. Spread over more than 60 cities in 17 countries, more than 300 start-ups are currently under the two-years business incubation development booster programme with another 180 taking in yearly.
Today, there are ESA BICs in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and UK, with more already in the planning.
