High voltage gain DC-DC converter for micro and nanosatellite electric thrusters

The increasing miniaturization in the satellite industry, together with the use of solar energy as main energy source has given rise to a new generation of electrically powered space probes. These new probes are featured by a small size and weight. In this paper, a DC-DC converter that adapts the energy produced by solar arrays to supply an electric thruster is proposed. This type of thruster demands high DC voltage, whereas the solar array gives out a low DC voltage with limited power. Hence, this converter must have high voltage gain and low power. A topology comprised of a step-up transformer, a resonant tank and a voltage multiplier in cascade is proposed to meet these requirements. In addition, an optimization study is made to spot a design criterion. Finally, a low scale prototype is tested and experimental results are shown.