Abstract :
The electrical output from the thermoelectric generators used in the Ripple I and Ripple II equipments is 75 mW at 400 mV. Because of the low-voltage output, a gallium-arsenide tunnel-diode convertor is used. This unit supplies a trickle charge to a storage battery energising a pulsed navigation light, which requires a tube voltage of 500 V, a trigger voltage of 8 kV, and has a mean power consumption of 30 mW.
