All Core Devices for BeiDou 3 Satellites Made in China

Authorities from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced that all core devices used in the BeiDou 3 Satellites are domestically made.

A program made and broadcasted by China Central Television (CCTV) reported on December 3, 2018, that all parts and core devices used for BeiDou 3 navigation satellites are “100%made in China”, and key technologies enable “complete independence and control” within China. In an earlier report by Xinhua News in January 2018, XIE Jun, Chief Designer of the BeiDou 3 satellites, also announced that all core devices for China's BeiDou navigation satellites are made in China,ending reliance on imports”.

In the CCTV's interview, WANG Ping, the General Engineer of the BeiDou 3 satellites, stated that “the application of domestic parts and components in the BeiDou system wasregarded as a main objective from the very beginning of the design”, and he showed a box of high-end space integrated circuits (ICs), all of which were produced by the Beijing Microelectronics Technology Institute (BMTI), a primary and leading space chip supplier in China.

Launching of the BeiDou 3 satellites

BMTI's space chips

“It is definitely an honor for our space chips to serve the BeiDou system and many other aerospace projects in China,contributing to the independent control of domestic space devices. Also, our space ICs have been serving the international space industry, being exported to Russia and European countries.” said ZHAO Yuanfu, the Vice Director of the Science and Technology Committee of the China Academy of Aerospace Electronics Technology (CAAET) and the former director of BMTI.

In 2014, BMTI exported space ICs to Russia. This was the first time that Chinese space devices were exported abroad.Since 2016, export of space chips have been one of the topics in regular meetings between Chinese and Russian Prime Ministers. In 2017, the Thales Group, a large defense and aerospace company in France, issued a technical audit report to BMTI.To this day, BMTI's space ICs have been exported in batches to Russia, France, Germany and Switzerland. (YU Weishu/Aerospace China)