CRYOGENICALLY COOLED CONTROLLED SWITCH FOR SPACE POWER CONDITIONING

A SOLID STATE SWITCH FOR OPERATION AT CRYOGENIC TEMPERATURE IS BEING DEVELOPED THAT WILL PROVIDE MULTI-MEGAWATT POWER CONDITIONING IN THE RAPIDLY EXPANDING FIELD OF LOW TEMPERATURE ELECTRONICS. SINCE EXISTING CONTROLLED SWITCHES ARE NOT DIRECTLY SUITABLE FOR CRYOGENIC OPERATION, ONLY A FUNDAMENTAL APPROACH CAN DEVELOP STRUCTURES CAPABLE OF LOW LOSS AND RELIABLE OPERATION IN THE TEMPERATURE RANGE BELOW 80K. IN PHASE I, THE KEY PARAMETERS ARE BEING DETERMINED AND A DESIGN BASIS PREPARED FOR THE ACTUAL FABRICATION AND TESTING OF EXPERIMENTAL CONTROLLED SWITCHES IN PHASE II. THIS APPROACH WILL DEVELOP THE DESIGN BASIS REQUIRED AND DEMONSTRATE PROTOTYPE SWITCHING COMPONENTS FOR BOTH MILITARY AND COMMERCIAL SPACE HIGH PERFORMANCE POWER CONDITIONING. IT WILL ALSO BE OF VALUE TO TERRESTRIAL POWER CONDITIONING SYSTEMS WHERE LOW TEMPERATURE OPERATION IS REQUIRED.