Characterization and Radiation Testing of Low Mass High Voltage Converters for MicroThrust
Session
Pre-Conference: CubeSat Developers' Workshop
Abstract
Since 2008, the MicroThrust (MT) consortium consisting of EPFL, Nanospace, QMUL, SystematIC, and TNO has been working on the development of a MEMS based propulsion system. Since 2010, the work has been performed as part of the European Union’s FP7 programme with the goal to design, built and test an engineering model of such a system. One of MT’s critical subsystems is the power conditioning and distribution unit, as very stringent mass and voltage requirements have been defined. During the preliminary design of MT, several High Voltage Power Converters (HVPC) have been identified, each with very low masses and volume. These HVPC are commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), and before being used in space they need to go through a series of environmental tests. This paper presents the procedure and results of radiation tests of two types of high voltage, COTS DC/DC converters. Both are able to provide up to 4 [kV] for an input up to 5 [V] and were tested at the Paul Sherrer Institut, in Villigen, Switzerland. Low and high dose-rates were applied, thanks to high-energy (200 [MeV]) protons. Both converters were able to sustain a total ionizing dose (TID) of 100 [krad]. Despite a generally good behavior, small voltage drops and glitches, due to single event effects (SEE), were observed. All the results will be presented in details.
Presentation Slides
Characterization and Radiation Testing of Low Mass High Voltage Converters for MicroThrust
Since 2008, the MicroThrust (MT) consortium consisting of EPFL, Nanospace, QMUL, SystematIC, and TNO has been working on the development of a MEMS based propulsion system. Since 2010, the work has been performed as part of the European Union’s FP7 programme with the goal to design, built and test an engineering model of such a system. One of MT’s critical subsystems is the power conditioning and distribution unit, as very stringent mass and voltage requirements have been defined. During the preliminary design of MT, several High Voltage Power Converters (HVPC) have been identified, each with very low masses and volume. These HVPC are commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), and before being used in space they need to go through a series of environmental tests. This paper presents the procedure and results of radiation tests of two types of high voltage, COTS DC/DC converters. Both are able to provide up to 4 [kV] for an input up to 5 [V] and were tested at the Paul Sherrer Institut, in Villigen, Switzerland. Low and high dose-rates were applied, thanks to high-energy (200 [MeV]) protons. Both converters were able to sustain a total ionizing dose (TID) of 100 [krad]. Despite a generally good behavior, small voltage drops and glitches, due to single event effects (SEE), were observed. All the results will be presented in details.
