Case Study: FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences achieves on-time, on-budget CubeSat design with Altium Designer

Students at Germany’s Aachen University of Applied Sciences use Altium Designer for an innovative satellite design project

Altium, a global provider of unified electronics design software, partnered with students at Aachen University of Applied Sciences who were developing COMPASS-1, a CubeSat that had to meet strict limits — 10×10×10 cm, 1 kg, and use only commercial off‑the‑shelf components — while staying within tight budget and project-management constraints to survive launch and re‑entry.

Using Altium Designer’s single, collaborative environment, the team iterated quickly between schematic, PCB layout and prototype testing, and used real‑time supplier links to choose cost‑effective, available parts. The workflow let them sync changes across the project and complete design, prototyping and production on time and on budget.

FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences