Silicon carbide based Anode Supply Module Array for hall effect thrusters

Author

Reese, B. ; Hearn, C. ; Lostetter, Alex

Author_Institution

Arkansas Power Electron. Int., Inc., Fayetteville, AR, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

2-9 March 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

8

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a high efficiency, rad-hard 3.8 kW silicon carbide (SiC) based Anode Supply Module (ASM) Array for the High Voltage Hall Accelerator (HiVHAC) thruster´s power processing unit (PPU). The power converter utilizes SiC JFET power switches which have on-resistance an order of magnitude smaller than equivalent 600V rad-hard silicon MOSFETs. Program goals include the ability to produce up to 700 V output voltage, 3.6 kW output power, 2.5 kW/kg gravimetric power density, and 96% efficiency. The converter operates on 80-160 V input and can dynamically control the output voltage between 200-700 V.

Keywords

aerospace propulsion; field effect transistor switches; power convertors; power field effect transistors; power supplies to apparatus; radiation hardening (electronics); silicon compounds; space vehicle electronics; wide band gap semiconductors; Hall effect thrusters; JFET power switches; SiC; high voltage Hall accelerator thruster; on-resistance; power 3.6 kW; power 3.8 kW; power converter; power processing unit; rad-hard silicon carbide based anode supply module array; voltage 200 V to 700 V; voltage 80 V to 160 V; Anodes; Arrays; Microcontrollers; Silicon carbide; Transient analysis; Voltage control;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2013 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

ISSN

1095-323X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-1812-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2013.6496863

Filename

6496863