About McClain Electronics Engineering

Here is a summary of the experience that has been brought to MEE:

• Electronics Design and Development

  • Full responsibility for the design of a major Avionics box for the Vulcan launch vehicle that includes functionality for power distribution and conditioning, analog to digital conversion of sensor inputs, ordnance initiation control, thrust vector control, and communication.  Development activity including requirements development, preliminary design review, building development hardware, testing development hardware, critical design review, qualification, and integration into the system.

  • Full responsibility for the design of one module of a major Avionics box for the Atlas V launch vehicle that includes functionality for control of the RD-180 engine.  Development activity including requirements development, preliminary design review, building development hardware, testing development hardware, critical design review, qualification, and integration into the system.

  • Various levels of involvement in design and development of 3 other Avionics boxes in use on the Atlas V, Delta IV, and Vulcan launch vehicles.

  • Involvement in development of many build-to-spec Avionics boxes, sensors, and other components for Atlas V, Delta IV, and Vulcan launch vehicles.

• Project Management – responsibility for managing an electronics design, working with major suppliers, negotiating contracts, managing BOMs, and leading a team of talented engineers to complete a large electronics design effort.

• Qualification Testing – development of requirements and successful execution of qualification testing for both designed and off the shelf products, to extremely challenging test requirements.  When things don’t go as planned, also have lots of experience troubleshooting, finding root cause and corrective action, and getting back into test to complete qualification.

• Environmental Testing – development of requirements and successful execution of shock, vibe, thermal, thermal vacuum, humidity, and other environmental tests on a wide variety of components.  To MIL-STD-1540C as well as other test requirements.

• EMI Testing – a vast amount of experience planning and supporting EMI testing, to MIL-STD-461G requirements as well as other test requirements.  Also have experience evaluating EMI test outages and successfully implementing design changes to resolve the outage.

• System Engineering – leading a team of engineers responsible for the Avionics system on the Vulcan launch vehicle.

• RF Component Development - Qualification of RF components for a launch vehicle.

• Instrumentation – Developing and implementing requirements for sensors and measurements on a launch vehicle.

 

Here are some of the Standards and Requirements we have worked with:

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• MIL-STD-461G EMI Test Requirements

• MIL-STD-1553 Communication Data Bus Standard

• MIL-STD-1540C Test Requirements for Space Vehicles

• MIL-STD-810 Humidity Test Requirements

• IEEE 802.3 Ethernet

• EWR 127-1 Eastern and Western Range Safety Requirements

• AFSPCMAN 91-701 Launch and Range Safety Program Policy and Requirements

• IPC-6011, 6012, 6013 PCB Specifications

• J-STD-001 Solder Requirements