Wide Output Range Power Processing Unit for Electric Propulsion

A power supply concept capable of operation over 25:1 and 64:1 impedance ranges at full power has been successfully demonstrated in our Phase I effort at efficiencies of 96% and above. The benefits of electric propulsion systems are highest when an electric thruster can be operated at high efficiencies over wide ranges of thrust and specific impulse. Hall and ion thruster technologists are close to demonstrating this capability with laboratory and flight model thrusters, and power conversion systems based on the power supply concept demonstrated in our Phase I program will enable wide-ranging operation of these devices. Although ambitious missions with extreme throttling capabilities would now be possible with the CPE wide ranging power supply (WRPS) design, less ambitious (single throttle point) missions are also well served. This is because one power supply design could meet the needs of many different single-throttle-point devices without the need to re-design and re-qualify hardware. We judge that this innovation will save NASA, DoD, and commercial aerospace entities precious non-recurring engineering resources without sacrificing performance.