Where was the "evolution" in the Soviet research institutes and design bureaus of the peripheral zone
One of the moments that evoke in me a deep sense of respect and gratitude for the Soviet period was the Soviet education system.
Children even on the periphery were given a very decent and versatile education for the average person.
If someone considered this insufficient for themselves at that stage, then it was possible to offer additional options such as ZFTSH (correspondence school of physics and technology) at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). And when in one of the tasks in this school the task was set to calculate the required power of the engine of a small helicopter, and in the other, the calculation of the inductance on a toroidal core was given (by the way, which I still use), I realized that theoretical knowledge gives certainty in my thoughts and dreams.
My further studies took place at the Bauman School.
Two things that characterize the mechanics of the functioning of this university are usually not visible behind the praises of laudatory words about this school.
Entering Baumanka in the late 70s was not extremely difficult, but further studies were tough, and in the process of studying in the group where I studied, every third student was expelled.
Such rigidity aimed to leave only those who were able to reach the level of real assimilation of a complex of theoretical and technical knowledge for subsequent practical application and further, perhaps in the future, will be able to rise significantly above this starting point.
The atmosphere while studying at Baumanka was very specific, it was somewhat reminiscent of a fight club. This was supported by many, we even had officers among the teachers at the military department, some had experience of real battles in Vietnam and Sinai.
Back in 1979, I happened to be the captain of the student team in the strength of materials. We were additionally specially trained for about a month and a half, and then they said:
“Well, I hope you understand how the meeting of the Baumanka team with the teams of other universities always ended ... I hope you won’t let us down ...”
And that year, our team practically “rolled out” the rest of Moscow and the Moscow region.
The second feature of Baumanka is that it is not just an educational university, but also a multidisciplinary center, where the initial study of many projects was carried out.
And by senior year, much of what was called teaching materials was part of real projects or research.
However, when I was assigned to my first job at the Fakel Design Bureau in 1983, there was a feeling of shock and misunderstanding how everything here is tied to what we were taught. A couple of my buddies arrived a bit later for distribution, and it was amusing to see that same question mark in their eyes.
As a senior comrade (Nikolai Kovalenko) who has already worked for a certain number of years told us:
«Here you will not work as designers, here you will be used in fact as technical draftsmen, and you will be engaged not in designing, but in drawing.»
What did this mean practically?
This is how accomplished designer Nikolai (MAI graduate, 30 years old) developed drawings of the fuel part of the 17B13 engine block. This block was a small frame, to which a large high-pressure ball-cylinder with xenon, necessary for the operation of the plasma-ion engine, was pulled by clamps. There was something else from the pneumatic switching equipment.
When all this was done, assembled and placed on a vibration stand, the balloon began to turn in the clamps. On this occasion, a meeting is being held at the very top, where the task is given to tighten the clamps with high quality. But the problem does not go away, and at the next meeting an instruction is given to use wrenches with a tightening ratchet when assembling. Further, since the problem does not go away again, an instruction is given to get and use wrenches with a dial indicator of the torque.
The next squeak was a sticker and the use of strain gauges. Around this moment, a suggestion appears that the frequency run on the shaker should be done quickly and not get stuck on ... a mechanical resonance point. That is, the mass of the balloon and the elasticity of the clamps create a classic oscillatory system with a pronounced resonance.
Actually, the designer differs from the draftsman in that he must see the physics of phenomena in the design being developed and lead the project away from problems.
…However, the presence of an intricate vibrodrome, its overcoming, constant communication with cosmic leaders, demonstrating to them that you are on an equal footing with them in terms of the activity of tamping down problems, can serve as the basis for successful career growth.
When I demonstrated the assembly drawings of my first project of the 17B14 engine block at a meeting with the management of the OKB Fakel, the drawings did not raise any questions, and when my friend prepared and presented drawings of the pneumatic circuit for powering the 17B14 engine with xenon at a similar meeting, a hubbub began there.
“Can you imagine, they don’t know the designations on the pneumatic diagrams at all ... And also, in my opinion, they are fools ...”
This, of course, was a bold statement of yesterday's student (and in the present - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, director of the Kislovodsk mountain astronomical station).
So what are these design bureaus and research institutes of the peripheral zone?
In one such research institute - the Research Institute of Physical Measurements (measuring sensors for space applications) - I worked or was closely associated with it from 1985 to 2012. On the example of this scientific research institute, one can see how it functioned and how the evolution of development took place there. This is very educational.
NII FI appeared in the same way as OKB "Fakel" somewhere in the early 60s. However, from the very beginning they did not have to look for their place under the sun: they emerged as a branch of the Research Institute of Measuring Technology. This research institute in Podlipki was overloaded with measurement topics and needed someone to whom they could transfer part of their projects for support. Very timely, at the same time, the first graduates of the newly created Penza Polytechnic University are taking place. The task of escorting did not require extreme intellectual abilities, and local graduates were quite suitable for this. The same ones immediately realized all the charm of what a cool cosmic glade they got into, and they didn’t just get there, but they got there first and with a whole shobla.
Somewhere by 1967, a new leadership, a new young director, is appointed from this call, and in 1968 a new young team pushes smart people out of its composition - its potential competitors. This was done very humanely, they were offered to relocate to the local polytechnic, to deal with the same topics, a department was made for this, contracts were concluded.
In the mid-80s, I heard about the head of the laboratory where I worked at that time:
“…Yes, your boss is very talented, he created a technical direction here with the highest technical parameters, but… he is intelligent, he is not a member of any local clan group. He is a stranger here. They won’t let him in here above the head of the laboratory ... "
On the other hand, since the end of the 60s, the knowledge has spread among ordinary people in Penza that there is an institute in the city center where the salary has a cosmic multiplying factor, but the work there is difficult to say what they do there, and whether they do they are there at all, but you have to walk in a white coat.
As far as I understand, the hierarchical structure of such IOM organizations was built according to some standard recommended scheme.
Thus, the head of our laboratory, perhaps the best real research institute specialist in electronics, constantly complained that he, as a leader, had to spend a significant part of his time participating in various meetings. And as the day began, the chief, perhaps his deputy and selected specialists, went to confer with the head of the department and his local deputies. Further, some part of this meeting went to confer with the head of the department (complex) and there they already rubbed the problems. But that was not all. The next level was the deputy director for scientific and design work. If there were graters with production, then questions could be submitted to a meeting with the director or chief engineer.
If the itch to confer still has not cooled down, there was always the opportunity to board the Sura branded train, go to Moscow and confer there already.
Since, with this style of work, the control pyramid looked somewhat overloaded, for the grassroots public there was still an additional loop of supervision and management when we went to sign report coupons on the work done and carried them to the special sector.
But… The monstrous pyramid of command and control… and 40% of the staff of the sensor development laboratories at NIIFI and some of the electronics developers were scammers (or prone to scammers).
My first electronics project was the Quartz theme, the development of the electronics for the cryogenic pressure sensor of a military heavy hydrogen laser (this is from our response to the Americans' Strategic Defense Initiative). I did my best, did much better than you might expect from a typical graduate in electronics, but the developers of the sensor in choosing the type relied on the strain gauge method, which operates in a temperature range of a maximum of 80 ... 120 degrees. No attempt has been made to add a thermistor to the sensor to compensate for the unusually wide temperature range.
This project failed miserably. I was chosen as a "whipping boy" and "scapegoat". The people demanded to drag me to the authorities ... And me? I don't mind…
In the process of testing on the stands, I built about 20 graphs that fully described the behavior and characterized the cause of the failure. And when I said that I would go with the schedules, they told me that they didn’t want to work with such a bastard anymore, but they wouldn’t go to the management either.
Later, I tried to show these charts to at least some of the management. But no one needed them.
When working in this style, the laboratory received 60% of the payment under the contract, demonstrated the initial result or its absence, and if successful, went to receive another 40%, followed by hemorrhoids of bureaucratic registration of the result of the work. The percentage of contracts where customers were hung noodles on the ears, followed by a guaranteed zero output, jumped sharply in the 90s and early 2000s.
Surprisingly, the “tops” and “bottoms” each lived their own unconnected lives.
And if each of us at our grassroots level could, to the best of our ability and desire, “butt” with the problems and challenges of the scale of the laboratory, then there was a ringing silence around the chronic problems of the scale of the research institute.
Thus, the majority of NIIFI developments are based on thin-film vacuum deposition technologies. These technologies and equipment were not created from scratch at NIIFI, but were borrowed from somewhere. Vacuum deposition was used in the production of sensors, thin-film microassemblies, glass-ceramic chip resistors. However, if we ask the NIIFI, for example, what parameters chip resistors have, then you will obviously be sent to the archive to read the original specifications for these same chip resistors. According to this specification, chip resistors have a temperature coefficient of ±75 ppm. At the same time, they have the right to look at you with big bulging eyes as a person who does not understand that any "sneeze" on space topics should be based on reading OSTs, GOSTs, TUs, STPs and other regulations.
In reality, the temperature coefficient of those resistors reached ±5 ppm and even ±000 ppm (8 percent per degree).
An even more “lethal” moment of local thin-film technologies was that the resulting resistances did not have temporal stability. If a tensometric resistive bridge was formed on the sensitive surface of the sensor, then the zero of such a sensor constantly drifted somewhere in time. This could create problems on the shop floor. Imagine, when the initial adjustment of the secondary electronics was done, a big break in work accidentally wedged in, and at the time the product was handed over for acceptance, everything went somewhere beyond the tolerances.
To solve a similar problem at the company where I work now, they would create an investigation team of specialists with cool powers.
Back in the 80s, I glanced at the process of vacuum deposition at NIIFI. From what was noticed, local experts "improved" the design of sputtering magnetrons. They threw out the “unnecessary elements” of the anode part, not suspecting that there is a physical law according to which the breakdown voltage decreases with increasing distance in a technical vacuum. As a result, where the Hall discharge was supposed to burn, an electro-erosion one clicked in this place. It was possible to talk about this at the research institute, but it was extremely useless.
In addition to the strange pyramid of management, there were some other nuances at NIIFI.
For example, when the Deputy Director for Procurement and Economic Affairs was mentioned, knowledgeable people mentioned him with emphasized aspiration. He was a very important person from the world of important people. It must be understood that positions with space capabilities in the field of supply in the Soviet era were not for ordinary people. Such positions should only be held by important people.
The chief technologist was also peculiar.
Many of the parts made at the NIIFI were in the form of a box or pan, carved from a massive piece of metal. For this problem, NIIFI received a compact foundry ... And it was immediately resold and disappeared. Obviously, it was a valuable resource.
Technologists at the turn of the 90s had the idea to develop their own microchips using CMOS technology. Under this business, a large batch of imported computers of the IBM PC XT, AT 286, AT 386 class, DEC VAX station mini-computers were purchased.
For that time, it was just incredible fantasy. And ... 40-60% of personal computers immediately disappeared somewhere.
That moment was remembered by the way the son (cooperator-tsekhovichok) of the chief technologist ran: “... And my share should be more! ..”
Purely historically, in space research institutes since the era of Korolev, in the structure of such organizations there has been specialized production, sharpened for the purpose of prototyping.
If you have an idea, it is good practice to test it first in some simplified mock-up form, perhaps in a quick way and several times. Only after there is a relatively complete understanding of what you can achieve, it is worth going to the main design cycle and connecting the main production ...
But this was in the era of Korolev, and in the 80s, the prototyping workshop (No. 30) at NIIFI was focused on sharpening pitching for summer cottages, spare parts for cars and was a lifesaver for important people.
Intelligent work filling
From the moment of its creation, NIIFI has been closely tailed by the Research Institute of Measuring Equipment. From there they received ideas, development of their first projects, consultations, methods of work. According to the model and likeness of NIIIT, technological equipment was ordered and used at NIIFI.
In the future, universities began to play the role of “crutches for the brain”.
Formally, their work could be called the performance of some research work (R&D), but functionally they can be divided into three broad categories.
The first group consisted of reports in which professors translated some abstruse scientific constructions into a specific applied case and chewed it in a simple, understandable language, specially adapted for the fact that the report would be on the desk of the middle-level boss, who, perhaps, would read it and instruct subordinates.
The second group of R&D consisted in the fact that mock-up developments were made at the university, which in the future could serve as a prototype for real developments.
Much of these layouts were mediocre. The best R&D for NIIFI was performed at LETI by two graduate students. Under the guidance of their professor, they designed and tested several prototype electronics for capacitive sensors. The originality of this project was that there were effects of compensating for dimensional tolerances, temperature dependence, non-linear capacitance behavior, cable length and parasitic capacitance between sensor and electronics.
The last type of R&D reports were calculation methods. I didn’t really see them specifically at NIIFI, but in other research institutes and design bureaus, where questions related to gas dynamics, thermodynamics, shaft dynamics, methods were the main value, without which the calculation group of the design department, like the entire design department, turned into nothing.
The use of external "brain crutches" sharply reduced the quality requirements of their own specialists. This was extremely convenient for the management, since it allowed them to ignore the natural dispersion of specialists in terms of education, potential, self-motivation and “profile” career advancement in such a way that in the future there would be no problems and conflict situations for the management personally.
Although, for the most part, the R&D of the NIIFI of that time can be spoken of as a large number of attempts, a huge amount of time spent, an appropriate amount of resources, and a modest end result, other examples can be given.
For example, one technologist analyzed several research projects, on his own initiative carried out the design work of his sensor, manufactured, tested and presented the development to the director. It was a complete analogue of Endevco products, which at that time was the "world trendsetter" in the field of semiconductor sensors for critical applications. The director twisted this sensor in his hands and said: “Yes, that’s good… But we won’t produce it because our workers don’t have due diligence in performing critical operations…”
The head of the laboratory where I worked was also a great enthusiast of initiative projects. When it was mentioned in a translated article in the journal "Electronics" that in the USSR there are developments of sensors with very high parameters, this was achieved through its electronics.
However, in the region of 2000, he spoke about the need for greater adequacy in the construction of work at the NIIFI, he was immediately kicked from the enterprise.
The development of enthusiasts played a specific role.
When the official search work from year to year ran into a kind of stupor, then, as it were, a very worthy result rolled up by itself, which could be filed with the report.
These reports aroused specific interest, and after a short time one could hear in the local polytechnic: “I proposed a solution in my dissertation…” or “I analyzed and came to the conclusion…”
natural course of things
Somewhere at the very beginning of the year, sensor development laboratories and sometimes separately electronics developers entered into development contracts. In a certain percentage, there were also agreements on thematic cards (from the ministry).
A network schedule was drawn up for each contract. It was such a big sheet, where the work was noted in the squares, the unit performing it, the deadlines for completion, the allocated resources. Since the entire actual negotiation process took place at a relatively grassroots level, the dominant logic of its participants was a clear, simple principle: “Nishtyaki, time, valuable resources - pull on yourself. Real work, responsibility for the results - push away from yourself.
Well, then there was, as it were, a straight line, resting on November-December. However, this line was sometimes very punning.
For example, in the network diagram for the DHS-024 sensor, where I was the main draft force, the date of delivery of the debugged built-in sensor software was April-May 2012, and the purchase of the necessary development tools and the start of debugging was June (actually, July) 2012.
But this was not the main humor.
A non-trivial question arises. Why does this line have to be straight?
When I worked at the Fakel Design Bureau, a large amount of internal regulatory documentation was issued there, in the preamble of which there was an obligatory indication that the document was created for a reason, but in full compliance with all the provisions of the “Bible for the creation of rocket and space technology” - Guiding Materials RK-75. Now this is already a rather forgotten document, but in these materials an official attempt was made to generalize the experience of the era of S.P. Korolev and outlined those approaches to work that were supposed to lead away from catastrophic failures.
At one time I tried to read this document. It was written in Talmudic language, but the general idea could be understood.
...When creating a technique that has a combination of a high degree of novelty, extremeness in terms of achievable parameters and ultimate responsibility for the final result, the task must be divided into a set of clearly defined technical problems and stages. The task of each stage should be clearly formulated, a layout is made for it without any unnecessary frills. A thorough testing of the main problematic part is quickly carried out for compliance with theoretical, design parameters, as well as docking parameters with other parts. If necessary, the layout of a separate stage can be quickly altered and re-tested. All the problems of the project should be completely covered by the "grid" of such works. Requirements for constructive completeness apply only to the last stages ...
The above-mentioned network graph on DHS-024 concerned an acoustic pressure sensor, in which, in addition to the main piezoelectric element, which perceives the acoustics of a running rocket engine, an additional isolated piezoelectric element was added, which was supposed to perceive only the vibration of the sensor. The dream of the creators of this "miracle" was to subtract the parasitic pickup from vibration from the signal with an additional element.
The idea as a whole, in general, is understandable, but the hope that it will be possible to decompose the picture of the initial vibrational sensitivity of the channels along all 3 coordinate axes into some compensated idyll and do it on the first attempt was too optimistic.
In the proposed set of works, it was worth starting with the fact that the signal from both channels of the sensor was dragged through a self-made charge amplifier into the computer's sound card, making exhaustive recordings of the channels, both on acoustics and on a vibration stand. In this case, the vibration stand should be slightly modified for the use of the Spectra Plus program and the removal of the transfer frequency response. The final mathematical evaluation should have been done in something like Matlab.
A simple frequency scanning of the impedance of the sensors showed that things were not so simple with the sensor: there was an additional frequency pole-zero pair in the acoustic channel around 18 kHz, which was not in the vibration channel. With a negative result on the convergence of mathematics, it was necessary to immediately go to the second round of the sensor design, and this had to be done before the practical start in electronics.
If it was realistic to start insisting on these actions, then immediately surfaced:
- We have already divided the money, everything suits us all ...
- The network schedule is signed and it is impossible to change it ...
- What? What a sound card!.. Think about it, can it even be on the list of permitted measuring equipment?
Subtle allusion to thick circumstances
If we ask ourselves the question, where did the frequency pole-zero pair appear in the DHS-024 sensor at 18 kHz, then the creators of this sensor will not be able to answer this question.
An absolutely similar question can be asked about string pressure sensors, which NIIFI has been producing since the 60s. It is well known that in these pickups there is some kind of string that has a resonance frequency, and this frequency changes when the string is stretched. When, back in the 80s, there were attempts to replace the obsolete sensor electronics with something modern and radiation-resistant, the rustic local public was dumbfounded by the result.
In the original circuit of electronics, a very peculiar handwriting and understanding of a professional was felt, which the locals could not grasp in any way.
The idea and knowledge about a certain resonance, of course, is good for university education, but in mechanical systems one can talk about the presence of multiple vibration modes, the frequencies of which, if special efforts are not made, can be located very close together and create amusing “collisions”.
Similar "rake" appeared behind the problems of Coriolis-type flowmeters.
When they gave a kick from the enterprise to my former boss, who created electronics primarily for capacitive sensors in the 80s and early 90s, a certain question mark hung in the air. It cannot be said that someone began to panic, rushed to look for ways out, make alternative developments and close the "loops". The typical reaction of NIIFI to such challenges was that the technical direction simply fell into suspended animation.
The presence of research reports of graduate students from LETI, documentation for many projects on capacitive sensors, and also the presence of a small shibzdik, stating - "... I proposed a solution in my dissertation..." did not compensate for the absence of the author of the projects.
As a demonstration of what the average electronics developer lacks in order to promote such projects, we can offer the following simple test:
you can ask to calculate the frequency response of an analog filter, some classic on operational amplifiers from the 80s, and do it purely "hand-to-hand" (for simplicity, in some kind of "calculator" like MathCAD). In practice, there is absolutely no need for this, since there have always been and are books, now there are simulation programs.
But when it becomes necessary to understand multi-loop feedbacks, and of different types, and to synthesize them yourself, then a complex of theoretical knowledge and a quality of mastering them are needed, which are significantly beyond the scope of a typical university course.
If we try to raise history ambitious projects of NIIFI, we will see some monotony.
Here in the region of 1983, NIIFI makes the first attempt to develop its own real microcircuits using CMOS technology. This task is entrusted to the head of the digital electronics laboratory, Mikhail Fedorovich.
The project ends in failure. A year or two later, the project is repeated, also by him and also ends in nothing.
I watched how Mikhail Fedorovich develops his projects. He puts a roll of graph paper on a large table, picks up a pencil, he is immediately overwhelmed by fantasies, and he endlessly “spreads his thought over the tree.” He was not the only one using this design style, but this design style is characterized by the fact that there is always residual thoughtlessness and a "funnel" is formed that "sucks" resources from the surrounding space.
At the turn of the 90s, I issued a thematic card for the development of my microcircuit for capacitive sensors according to the typical structure used in our laboratory.
The head of the department took and switched the budget and resources of the project to Mikhail Fedorovich, since “…he is in dire need of it now, and he is more experienced…”
I didn’t hear how it ended there, but I got the “hemorrhoids” to report on this work.
It is worth noting that the total circulation of microcircuits that was required, for the sake of which the project was intercepted and a disproportionately huge sadomasa unfolded, was only 5 ... 10 pieces.
At the very beginning of the 90s, the Research Institute of Television gave me a chance to develop a microcircuit for a capacitive sensor based on their base-matrix crystal. The microcircuit worked on the first try, and at NIITV they asked me how many microcircuits NIIFI was ready to buy.
Of course, the answer to this question was to be given by the leadership of NIIFI, but, of course, it was necessary to wait for an answer from the void ...
At the turn of the 90s, NIIFI technologists also had their own ambitious attempt to develop CMOS microcircuits. In addition to the fact that a lot of computer equipment was stolen at the start, the bet was made on people with zero experience in circuitry and a near-zero desire to immerse themselves in this circuitry.
There were several waves of computerization at NIIFI. If we look at the lists of those who were first provided with Soviet personal computers DVK-4 and trained to work on them, later - analogues of the IBM PC, then in retrospect it is clearly visible that very valuable resources were provided to those who did not have professional content to achieve some practically valuable result, as well as there was no desire to try to achieve it.
“... But how are things going with them there ... in the West ... among the bourgeoisie?”
Somewhere around 2009–2010. we have a colorful number of missiles in Russia. Oil prices were high at that time, and at the very top it was said that the problem must be tackled, and taken seriously ...
Literally in 3…4 months this wave reached NIIFI. The current modest funding program "Renaissance" was supplemented with the topic "Diagnostics", then the theme "Sandwich" and something like that ...
With the theme of "Renaissance" everything was clear. Local elderly blockheads fit into it very cool: they stupidly rewrote scientific reports from the 80s under the guise of new research developments. The most advanced among them have noticed that scientific reports from the 70s look much less hackneyed and more recent.
But what was to be done on the topic "Diagnostics"?
At first, this was very annoying for the local “gray cardinals”.
But then the reflection of typical actions prevailed (and training for the implementation of regulations): “Any new R&D should start with patent research reports!..” Everyone was very happy about this impulse and began to write patent reports.
A year passes, and the crowd writes and writes these reports, and somehow is not going to stop in this dope.
Logically, the real start should be made with the task of integrating into the problems of parent enterprises. Indeed, from RSC Energia, the head of the bench facilities for testing rocket engines came. He was a big, strong old man. He had a surprisingly excellent command of professional topics, he could define tasks and answer questions in clear, concrete numbers.
I was at a discussion with him and drew attention to the fact that the one who was to be responsible for this work in the future, all the time looked away somehow aloofly. It was clear that the old man had already been decided to "shod" and in the future to slip something completely different from what he asked for.
The space industry is unique in its own way. It amazes with the potential spectrum, the scale of its tasks and their complexity. Sensor measuring technology is unusual in that it allows you to "break in" and integrate into the solution of almost any technical problem, where the task is to achieve extreme results.
The purpose of creating specialized sensor equipment may be the task of helping to understand how much the ongoing processes in rocket and space technology correspond to what was planned and assumed. Another option for using sensors involves embedding them in a control and monitoring loop.
But between this demand for outstanding, or at least highly professional results, and the real action to achieve them, there is some kind of strange audience.
Another oddity is that the natural chain of actions and constructions aimed at the result, and the logic connecting them, must be squeezed into rather intricate regulations, rituals and rules. And the more unusual the task is, the more these rules hinder the achievement of the result.
PS
On the question of the d'Artagnans (as I was called in the comments to the previous article).
Now I work for a large private company. In 2022, during the CBO, I managed to develop a replacement for DSP Innovations products (and this is one of the world leaders). Before all these events, our company bought a license from them. Now this is no longer necessary.
My version works almost identically for normal conditions, but for conditions "as in tank' is noticeably superior.
- M.Pavlov
- https://img.findpatent.ru/img_data/14/140435.gif
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