Arkansas Power Electronics International, Inc. — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase II: In this SBIR project, APEI, Inc. is proposing to develop a high efficiency, rad-hard 3.8 k
Arkansas Power Electronics International, Inc. — SBIR Phase II award from National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- Amount
- $599,999
- Agency
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase II
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- AR
- Period
- 2011-06-01 → 2013-08-31
Description
In this SBIR project, APEI, Inc. is proposing to develop a high efficiency, rad-hard 3.8 kW silicon carbide (SiC) power supply for the Power Processing Unit (PPU) of Hall Effect thrusters. This program specifically targets the design of a PPU for the HiVHAC (High Voltage Hall ACcelerator) thruster, with target specifications of 80-160V input, 200-700V / 5A output, efficiency greater than 96%, and peak power density in excess of 2.5 kW/kg. The PPU under development utilizes SiC JFET power switches; components which APEI, Inc. has irradiated under TID conditions to greater than 3 MRad with little to zero change in device performance.