HARDWARE / PRODUCTUpdated 24 Jul 2026

PCDU — Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit

Terma
PCDU — Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit

Terma’s Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit (PCDU) family is a modular, scalable architecture built on plug-in modules mounted on a common backplane, enabling power system scaling from 250 W to over 15 kW without fundamental redesign. The baseline modular medium-power PCDU (used on Rosetta and Mars Express) supports 250 W to 5,000 W on a […]

Typed specifications2 values

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Conversion efficiency
95 %
min · product page
Flight heritage
Rosetta, Mars Express, Venus Express, Galileo, BepiColombo, Euclid, Plato, OneWeb, Small GEO
product page

Each value is typed with its unit and measurement condition and cites the datasheet page it was taken from. Nothing is guessed: a field that is absent here has not been published by the manufacturer. machine-extracted ✓ checked by NewSpace Market ✓ manufacturer confirmed by the manufacturer.

As published by the supplier11 lines, in the manufacturer's own wording
Power range
250 W to 15 kW+ (modular)
Bus voltage options
28 V, 50 V (regulated); 100 V (BepiColombo); unregulated 22–37 V
Regulation mode
Sequential Shunt Switching (S3R) or MPPT
Mppt efficiency
>99.7% (modular); up to 98% (BepiColombo modules)
Transfer efficiency
>95%
Output impedance
<20 mΩ
Module mass
~0.27 kg per plug-in module
Lcl distribution
104 high-current LCLs (BepiColombo MTM PCDU)
Colossus variant
800 W avg; 8–56 power rails; 400–8,000 Wh storage; 7.7 kg; 10+ missions
TRL
9 (50+ flight units)
Flight heritage
Rosetta, Mars Express, Venus Express, Galileo, BepiColombo, Euclid, Plato, OneWeb, Small GEO

About

Terma’s Power Conditioning and Distribution Unit (PCDU) family is a modular, scalable architecture built on plug-in modules mounted on a common backplane, enabling power system scaling from 250 W to over 15 kW without fundamental redesign. The baseline modular medium-power PCDU (used on Rosetta and Mars Express) supports 250 W to 5,000 W on a 22–37 V unregulated bus or regulated 28/50 V bus, with up to 21 plug-in modules totalling 0.27 kg per module plus backplane. Transfer efficiency exceeds 95% and MPPT performance exceeds 99.7%. The BepiColombo MTM PCDU represents the high-power extreme of the family: a 12–14 kW unit with 100 V main bus, 10 MPPT modules at up to 98% efficiency, 104 high-current LCLs, and a secondary 28 V bus, supporting dual ion propulsion thrusters on the 7-year Mercury cruise. The Colossus PCDU for smaller platforms provides 800 W average power with 8–56 configurable output rails, 400–8,000 Wh energy storage, and 10+ mission heritage in LEO/GEO/lunar. Output impedance is below 20 mΩ and idle consumption below 15 W. Terma has produced over 50 PCDU flight units with heritage on Rosetta (2004), Mars Express, Venus Express, Galileo navigation constellation, BepiColombo, Euclid, Plato, and OneWeb.

Documentation

No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.

Source: www.terma.com ↗

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