Smart Thermal Management for HARM Electronics

HARM electronic thermal control is difficult due to the system's dual nature. Most of its life the system exists as part of the aircraft. Cooling can be achieved by thermally coupling the electronics to the relatively cool air through the ordnance shell.However, after launch the HARM accelerates to a high velocity. Since this heats up the shell, the electronics can no longer be coupled to it.SatCon proposes an innovative thermal management approach for HARM electronics that would address this problem. The innovation is a passively controllable thermal path from the electronics to the missile's shell. Electronic thermal-dissipation can bechanneled through the shell to the air when the shell is cool. When the shell is hot, the heat is sunk to a highly efficient internal heatsink. Several options are presented for heat sink designs and for controlling the thermal path.Phase-I will evaluate these options through analysis, and the best candidates will be down-selected. With assistance from HARM manufacturers (e.g., Raytheon & ATK), this effort will culminate in a conceptual in-missile design. In Phase-II, aproof-of-concept prototype will be built and tested. In Phase-III, a beta prototype will be built and integrated into a HARM for testing. This thermal control technology will open the door for many electronic systems that operate in environments that can be cool or hot, depending on the operational mode and theatre. Although it is initially being developed for thermal management of HARMs,this approach could be readily applied to commercial land-based and aerospace transportation systems. The thermal paths and sinks would be different, but the idea of passive control of thermal paths is applicable to any system that has relativelyshort-lived extreme transient thermal conditions compared to a relatively stable operational baseline.