Qualification and relifing testing for space applications applied to the agilent G-Link components

The performance of commercial electronic integrated components with regard to their space qualified counterparts is increasingly attractive for the space domain. This paper presents the required steps the G-Link commercial components from Agilent COTS, a high speed serial interface, had to successfully pass before it has been authorized to be used for the Pleiades satellite developed by CNES, the French Space Agency. All these tests increase the 'ownership cost' of commercial components which could become higher than the one of space qualified parts; nevertheless, thanks to their high performance, commercial components are among technologies having a potential disruptive capability for future space missions.