Development and Commercialization of Permeability Engineered Soft Magnetic Nanocomposites for MW-Class Power Dense Energy Conversion

In Phase I of this program, the team sought to show feasibility for new advanced materials and manufacturing methods to address the full suite of MW-class magnetics technology needs relevant to DOD in addition to the selection of a single high-value application target for a proposed prototype in subsequent phase efforts.  The work completed paves the way for the proposed Phase II of the program, which will focus on continued materials and manufacturing research and optimization in parallel with scaling selected technology from laboratory to pilot and ultimately low-volume commercial demonstrations for transformer components.   The primary objectives of Phase II involve continued progress in the two technology pathways that together provide optimized solutions for medium and high frequency operation.  This includes advancement of FeNi nanocrystalline alloys to the milestone of subscale component manufacturing, specifically targeting transformer applications.  Optimized ribbon manufacturing will be determined feeding into commercially relevant designs for a subscale transformer in collaboration with commercial partners Eaton and Raytheon. The component will demonstrate operation at 50 kHz and additional testing and manufacturing pathway development will provide further confidence to scalability and commercial relevance.  In parallel advancements in the technology readiness of the ferrite technology will be pursued to address >100 kHz operation. A summary of the four objectives for Phase II are below: Objective #1: Develop new state-of-the-art nanocrystalline alloy ribbons leveraging advanced in line manufacturing processes, and that successfully demonstrate attributes capable of achieving the DARPA specified metrics for transformer applications. Objective #2: Demonstrate ferrite-based nanocomposite materials processed through advanced and additive manufacturing techniques with potential to successfully achieve the DARPA specified metrics for high frequency (>100 kHz) transformer applications. Objective #3: Optimized designs and successful demonstration of a critical high frequency transformer subcomponent to prove technical and manufacturing feasibility for full-scale prototype build and demonstration in the Phase II (option) period. Objective #4: Completed full application demonstration of scaled magnetic component for a transformer and benchmarking as per DARPA and commercially relevant metrics.