Lecture 5

Avionics System Components and Requirements

 We know that any system in airborne vehicles that is dependent on electronics for its operation or
function is termed an avionics system.
 To know the internal components of an avionics system better, we could take the example task of
computing the airspeed.
 Mechanical airspeed indicators (See Figure 1) measure the differential pressure between static
pressure from the static port and total pressure from the pitot tube, and this difference causes a
diaphragm to expand, thereby deflecting a pointer, which can be seen in the indicator.
 The deflection of the pointer is achieved through mechanical linkages between the diaphragm and
the pointer.

Figure 1. Components of the air speed indicator (mechanical).

 The method of measuring the airspeed using mechanical movement can be replaced by
electronics, which leads to the development of an avionics system, called an air data system to
determine the airspeed along with a few more air data quantities.
 In an air data system, the same differential pressure between the total pressure and the static
pressure is measured using a pressure sensor or transducer as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Schematic of a pitot-static tube with a pressure transducer for measuring the differential
pressure.
 And, from Bernoulli’s equation given by

the velocity (airspeed) can be computed from, Equation (1)

 Therefore, the preliminary requirements for the air data avionics system are:
 Pressure sensor—to measure the differential pressure and provide the quantity as an
electrical signal;
 Processor (a component which processes the digital data)—to compute the airspeed, V
using equation (1).
 The basic air data system is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Basic air data system.

(Source: R.P.G. Collinson, Introduction to Avionics Systems, Springer Science, 2011)

 By knowing the preliminary requirements, the major components involved in any avionics system
can be identified and are shown in Figure 4.
 The major/essential components of a typical avionics system are:
 Sensor(s)/transducer(s),
 Signal conditioning,
 Analog-to-Digital (A/D) converter,
 Processor,
 Memory,
 Power supply,
 Digital-to-Analog (D/A) converter, if required.
 Figure 4. Major components of the avionics system.

 The sensor/transducer converts the physical quantities (inputs) into an electrical analogue signal
(voltage or current) which corresponds to the physical quantity.
 For example, in an air data system, the pressure sensor converts the pressure difference
between the total pressure and the static pressure into a voltage proportional to the pressure
difference.
 In modern air data systems, separate sensors are used to sense the static pressure and the
total pressure, as shown in Figure 3.
 The signal conditioning section will manipulate the signal from the sensor as required for further
processing. Few signal conditioning processes are:
 Amplification: If the magnitude of the sensor signal is too low, it needs to be amplified for
further processing.
 Filtering: If the sensor signal is affected by noise, it needs to be filtered.
 Voltage regulation: If there are any changes in the input voltage to the system, the sensor
output voltage will exceed the regulated voltage, so the voltage needs to be regulated.
 The analog-to-digital converter will convert the analogue continuous signal from the sensor after
signal conditioning into digital data so that the processor will be ready to process the data.
 The processor will use the sensor inputs in digital form and perform its computation/function
according to the instructions (program) from the users (stored as machine language in memory)
and generate the outputs of the required function.
 The user’s instructions (for the required system functionality) in the form of programs should be
converted into machine language (binary) and stored in the memory of the system.
 All the data transfer between the memory and the processor takes place through internal data
buses (group of wires that carry binary information).
 Some avionics systems require analogue outputs to be sent to another system in order to be
actuated; in such cases, the digital outputs from the processer must be converted into analogue
form using a digital-to-analog converter.
  For example, in a fly-by-wire flight control system, the control surface movement
commands generated by the flight control computer need to be sent to the actuator control
electronics in analogue form.
 Finally, all the internal components of the avionics system will have their own power
requirements, which can be supplied from the power supply unit (PSU) of the system.
 In some avionics systems, the sensors and their processing can be a separate subsystem with an
internal processor.
 In modern aircraft, the processing section of an avionics system where the functionality of the
system is carried out is termed an avionics computer (See Figure 5). For example, air data
computers, navigation computers, flight control computers, etc.

Figure 5. Typical avionics computer and its internal components.

 Today, the avionics systems/subsystems are available in the form of line replaceable units
(LRUs) as a sealed unit (looks like the one shown in Figure 5) having dedicated digital logic and
microprocessor systems that process data locally, each making use of their own local bus system.
 The term “LRU” is used to represent a functional component or element that is designed to be
removed easily and replaced by a line maintenance operator on an aircraft if failure occurs.
 The architecture of a typical avionics LRU is shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6. Typical LRU architecture, where ARINC 429 is a standard for avionic data buses used in
commercial aircraft.

 Today, the concept of LRU is extended to a modular concept unit (MCU) for less size and weight.
 The MCU concept leads to the concept of Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA), a packaging
technique used by many aircraft flying today.
 Therefore, the advent of IMA introduces an integrated cabinet approach where the conventional
LRUs are replaced by fewer units. The IMA concept is shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7. LRU and integrated modular cabinet comparison.

 Figure 7 shows how the functionality of ten LRUs (A to J) can be installed in an integrated rack or
cabinet as ten Line Replaceable Modules (LRMs).
 Using the IMA approach, there are a number of potential advantages that can be realized:
 Savings in volume and weight.
 Sharing of resources, such as power supplies, across a number of functional modules.
 LRMs are more reliable than LRUs.
 Each modern avionics system (or LRU) has to withstand adverse operating environments such as
vibration, acceleration, shock, temperature, humidity, and electro-magnetic interference (EMI),
especially for military avionics systems.
 For this reason, the avionics systems have to undergo severe testing before the equipment is
accepted for delivery.
 For example, a reliability shake-down testing (RST) in which the system under testing has
to operate satisfactorily under the following conditions:
 Soaking in an environmental chamber at a temperature of +70°C for a given period.
 Rapid cooling of the equipment to −55°C in 20 minutes and soaking at that
temperature for a given period.
 Exposing the equipment to vibration.
 The number of times the RST has to be performed will be typically 20 cycles without a
failure before acceptance of the equipment.
 The most important requirement for the avionics systems today is to meet the EMI requirements.
 The possible sources of EMI are:
 EMI produced by sources emission external to the aircraft; surveillance radars, high-power
radio stations and communications.
 Internal EMI: Interference between aircraft equipment or by passenger carried laptops,
gaming machines, or mobile phones.
 Lightning effects.

Figure 8. LRU EMI hazards.

  Figure 8 shows the construction of a typical LRU to meet the EMI requirements in which the EMI
sensitive electronics are located in an enclosure on the left, called the EMI ‘clean’ area, and are
shielded from EMI effects such that the sensitive micro-electronics can operate in a protected
environment.
 All signals entering this area are filtered to remove voltage spikes and surges.
 To the right of the EMI boundary are the EMI filters and other components such as the power
supply unit (PSU).
 These components are more robust than the sensitive electronics and can successfully operate in
this environment.
 Finally, in many cases, the external wiring will be shielded, twisted-pair for cables, and
grounded to screen the wiring from external surges or interference induced by lightning, more
certainly from emissions from passengers’ laptop computers and hand-held computer games.

Figure 9. Shielded wiring in aircraft.

Figure 10. Shielded cables (left); a shielded twisted-pair cable (right).

 This ensures the requirement for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), which is the ability of
communications electronics equipment, subsystems, and systems to operate in their intended
operational environments without suffering or causing unacceptable degradation because of
unintentional electromagnetic radiation or response.

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