Case Study: Pennsylvania State University achieves higher small-satellite design productivity with Altium Designer

Altium Designer Boosts Small Satellite Design Productivity to New Height

Penn State’s Student Space Programs Laboratory (SSPL) gives undergraduates and graduates hands-on experience designing, fabricating and integrating small satellites such as the OSIRIS-3U CubeSat. The lab’s predominantly student workforce struggled with legacy tools (OrCAD) that had steep learning curves, error-prone workflows and slowed project completion within academic timelines.

By switching to Altium Designer, SSPL students could self-train quickly and use features like a shared parts library, Footprint Wizard, AltiumLive cloud preferences and integrated 3D/MCAD and supplier links. The change reduced layout and BOM errors, sped development, increased system density, and helped move OSIRIS-3U from prototype to engineering models—with a NASA flight proposal submitted.

Pennsylvania State University

Tyler Boehmer

Programs Manager