Real-time signal processing and data acquisition for the Electric Field Detector (EFD-02) on the CSES-02 satellite

The Electric Field Detector (EFD-02) on board the second China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-02) will measure the electric field components at a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) over a wide frequency band (DC – 3.5 MHz) and with 1 μV/m sensitivity in the Low Frequency band. EFD-02 will measure the voltage differences between pairs of probes installed at the tips of four booms deployed from the satellite. In this article, we describe the Zynq System on Chip (SoC)-based digital hardware subsystem dedicated to signal processing, and the selected implementation strategy, which successfully complied to the specific requirements of the space mission. Furthermore, we present a comprehensive overview of the assessed instrument performance.