Wide Temperature, High-Frequency Capacitors for Aerospace Power Conditioning Applications

The military electrical systems have continually evolved into higher power, more compact architectures. This trend has generated the need for capacitors with high voltage breakdown strength and high insulation resistance to condition, insulate, and distribute power throughout the weapon system. Furthermore, there is a need to develop capacitors that can operate in a stable manner with continuous cycling over a temperature range from -55°C to 300°C and at frequencies up to 1 MHz. These design constraints have increased the demand for the capacitors with improved designs and materials. The objective of this proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility of developing wide temperature capacitors which are able to operate up to high frequency range (1MHz) without sacrificing capacitance. In order to achieve this goal, ESL and ESR must be reduced, and heat removal efficiency must be optimized. For this proposal, modeling and simulation are proposed to develop improved capacitor geometry and structure leading to increased breakdown voltage, energy density, operating temperature range and operating frequency of the capacitors. New dielectric materials will also be integrated into a two-dielectric design. In Phase 1, all capacitor design parameters for the capacitor with two dielectric materials will be investigated thoroughly. BENEFIT: Anticipated benefits of this project will be to manufacture the high energy density, high voltage and wide temperature capacitors, which can operate at high frequency in severe temperature environments with other wide temperature electrical parts.