Advanced Compact Inductor for Sonar Applications

The Navy requires compact high-power inductors to match single crystal transducers to their power amplifier drives for efficient, compact sonar operations in Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) applications, where volume and power are at a premium. Enabling more efficient UUV sonar operation will increase vehicle operational availability. Creare proposes to develop advanced, compact power inductors by commercializing a bulk nanocrystalline advanced core material whose cost-efficient fabrication has recently been demonstrated in an innovative process by our development partner. This core material provides saturation flux capability comparable to silicon steel while maintaining much higher electrical resistivity to reduce eddy current losses. Creare will use this advanced core material to develop compact inductor designs for UUV sonar applications. During Phase I we will demonstrate the feasibility of this approach through numerical analysis and laboratory testing. During Phase II we will refine the advanced core materials magnetic properties through incremental process improvements and fabricate inductors for testing. Creare will leverage our magnetic circuits and power electronics experience, along with the advanced materials capabilities of our development partner, to develop the compact inductor for sonar applications. We anticipate that the inductor development will be at TRL 5 at the conclusion of Phase II.