Radar Power Sources and Power Conditioning

VPT proposes a high efficiency, high density, low cost, 270Vdc input, power converter that can support the requirements of new high power shipboard Radar applications. The power converter will be modeled after VPT's existing 270V, half brick, 200W, 85% efficient design but will demonstrate significantly higher power density and efficiency by incorporating several new technologies demonstrated in Phase I. These include an innovative two stage soft-switching power converter topology, a custom low profile magnetics design, and an advanced embedded power packaging concept. In the Phase II research, VPT will perform a complete electrical and mechanical design of the shipboard RADAR power converter, built several prototypes, do a complete electrical and mechanical worst case analysis, and perform complete formal military qualification. VPT will develop power requirements for new shipboard RADAR applications with the Navy prime contractors, perform the detailed electrical and mechanical design, hold formal preliminary and critical design reviews, demonstrate the new packaging approach on VPT's standard product 270V input converter, build several engineering prototype converters, and perform detailed qualification testing, including shock, vibration, thermal cycling, and highly accelerated stress testing (HAST).