Energy-Dense Capacitors for High-Temperature Power Conversion

Electrically driven technologies are replacing hydraulic, pneumatic and mechanical systems in new military aircraft designs to improve capability, reliability and maintainability.  This transition requires high performance electronic components capable of operating over a wide temperature range.  Capacitors, which provide necessary power conditioning, have been identified as a limiting component for these architectures.  New dielectric materials and capacitor designs are needed to provide high specific capacitance and operation at high temperature. In support of this need, TPL recently completed an advanced technology development and production demonstration effort for AFRL.  The framework was successfully established for wound film capacitors capable of operating at a temperature of 200°C for aircraft power conversion applications.  The technology development accelerated the functional development and practical manufacturing demonstration of the fluorinone polyester (FPE) dielectric film and associated wound capacitor technology.  Performance of the FPE capacitor technology supports several future high-temperature power conversion needs. The proposed Direct to Phase II will focus on maturing the technology and demonstrating the high-temperature capacitor performance in 600-800 V capacitors to be used in conversion equipment that operates in 400 Hz power system architectures and with Variable Speed Constant Frequency (VSCF) generator control units.  Several capacitor design and fabrication iterations focused on optimizing performance and minimizing size will be performed during the Phase II Base period.  The Phase II Option will be directed at fabrication, test and delivery of full-scale capacitor prototypes which meet the needs of the Navy’s next generation 100 kVA DC Link Generator Converter Units.