High Efficiency Hall Thruster Discharge Power Converter

Busek leveraged previous, internally sponsored, high power, Hall thruster discharge converter development which allowed it to design, build, and test new printed circuit board converter within this Phase 1 effort. The new converter consists of two series or parallel boards (slices) intended to power NASA GRC HiVHAC thruster or other similarly sized EP devices. The converter accepts 80 to 160V input and generates 200 to 700V isolated output while delivering continually adjustable 300W to 3.5kW power. Busek built and demonstrated one board which achieved<94% efficiency the first time it was turned on, with projected efficiency exceeding 97% following timing software optimization. The board has a projected specific mass of 1.2kg/kW achieved thru high frequency switching.In Phase 2 we will perform the required optimization to exceed 97% efficiency and build a second prototype in a form factor more appropriate for flight. This converter will then be integrated with a set of upgraded existing boards for powering magnets and the cathode which constitute the balance of the PPU and use the traditional input voltage of 28V. The program will culminate with integrating the entire PPU and testing it on Busek thruster at Busek and on HiVHAC thruster at NASA GRC.