Universal BIST/Prognostics Approach for Switch Mode Power Supplies

Providing effective Prognostics/Health Maintenance (PHM) capabilities is a key objective for the JSF. A key part of PHM includes electronic prognostics, where an impending failure in an electronic module can be predicted before it occurs and thus is very useful for such critical systems. Power converters are ubiquitous, but often are prone to unexpected failures in military systems. Using a commercial DC to DC Power Converter as a test case, Ridgetop will develop prognostic methods, physics-of-failure component models (for pre-cursor measurement) and provide useful “remaining life” predictions. The work can easily be extended to other DC to DC power converters in Naval and DoD Systems. Ridgetop proposes a prognostic solution to detect 80% of impending random and end-of-life failures in the DC to DC Converter. When used together with Condition-Based maintenance, such a prognostic methodology will effectively increase the mean time between failure (MTBF) five fold. Ridgetop focuses its prognostics approach on a commercial switch-mode power converter having a conversion efficiency of 92%, and employing a forward topology (variation of a common buck topology). Ridgetop believes that the approach can be applied on power systems found in the JSF to help prevent catastrophic failures and increasing operational readiness