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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2009

Lightning Pin Injection Testing on MOSFETS

Lightning transients were pin-injected into metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) to induce fault modes. This report documents the test process and results, and provides a basis for subsequent lightning tests. MOSFETs may be present in DC-DC power supplies and electromechanical actuator circuits that may be used on board aircraft. Results show that unprotected MOSFET Gates are susceptible to failure, even when installed in systems in well-shielded and partial-shielded locations. MOSFET Drains and Sources are significantly less susceptible. Device impedance decreased (current increased) after every failure. Such a failure mode may lead to cascading failures, as the damaged MOSFET may allow excessive current to flow through other circuitry. Preliminary assessments on a MOSFET subjected to 20-stroke pin-injection testing demonstrate that Breakdown Voltage, Leakage Current and Threshold Voltage characteristics show damage, while the device continues to meet manufacturer performance specifications. The purpose of this research is to develop validated tools, technologies, and techniques for automated detection, diagnosis and prognosis that enable mitigation of adverse events during flight, such as from lightning transients; and to understand the interplay between lightning-induced surges and aging (i.e. humidity, vibration thermal stress, etc.) on component degradation.

Ely, Jay J.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Operation of Ultrafast, Low-Side MOSFET Driver, IXD609, over Wide Temperature Range

Electrical power and control systems designed for use in planetary exploration missions and deep space probes require electronics that are capable of efficient and reliable operation under extreme temperature conditions. In addition, space-based infrared satellites, all-electric ships, jet engines, electromagnetic launchers, magnetic levitation transport systems, and power facilities are also typical examples where system electronics are expected to be exposed to harsh temperatures and to operate under severe thermal swings. Most commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices are not designed to function under such extreme conditions and very little data exist on their performance outside their specified range of operation. In this work, the performance of an ultrafast gate driver for controlling power-level transistors was evaluated under extreme temperatures and thermal cycling. The investigations were carried out to assess performance for potential use of this device in space exploration missions under extreme temperature conditions.

Boomer, Kristen↗
NASA NTRS1993

Fast Overcurrent Tripping Circuit

Fast overcurrent tripping circuit designed for incorporation into power metal oxide/semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) switching circuit. Serves as fast electronic circuit breaker by sensing voltage across MOSFET's during conduction and switching MOSFET's off within 1 microsecond after voltage exceeds reference value corresponding to tripping current. Acts more quickly than Hall-effect current sensor and, in comparison with shunt current-measuring circuits, smaller and consumes less power. Also ignores initial transient overcurrents during first 5 microseconds of switching cycle.

Sullender, Craig C.↗
NASA NTRS1970

Solid state switch provides high input-to-output isolation

Switch uses a combination of N-channel and P-channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors /MOSFET/ to obtain a normally open switch with no power applied. Series-shunt-series MOSFET switching achieves high input-output isolation.

Magee, R. L.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Low dose failures of hardened DC-DC power converters

Box-level total dose testing of the FOG (Fiber Optic Gyro) by IXSEA at ESA's GammabeamFacility were abruptly terminated at 8krad (Si) due to catastrophic failure (complete shutdown). This was unexpected because all components within the gyro were supposedly radiation tolerant. Further testing showed that the components responsible for the failure were two DC-DC converters, manufactured by Interpoint, that stopped regulating shortly before shutdown. This paper summarizes diagnostic test results for the converters to determine the underlying cause of the unexpected failure at low levels of radiation.

Interpoint Rad-hard DC-DC power converter TC4426 M↗
NASA NTRS1990

Current-Monitoring and -Limiting Circuit For 28-Vdc Supply

Current-monitoring and -limiting circuit protects 28-Vdc power supply against steady overload. Provides some protection against sudden peak currents. Acts as limiter, monitoring amplifier, and delayed-action circuit breaker. Consists of pair of power metal oxide/semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET's).

Rodriguez, G. Ernest↗
NASA NTRS1994

Electronically Variable Resistive Load

Electronically variable linear resistive load circuit synthesized by use of analog components to control conductance of power metal oxide/semiconductor field-effect transistors, MOSFET's. Circuit has modular configuration, in which single controller drives parallel load units. A 3-kW load module that exhibits submicrosecond response time with respect to control signal demonstrated.

Niedra, Janis M.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Performance Evaluation of High-Speed, Low-Side Gate Driver, FAN3122, over Extended Temperature Range

Emerging power metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFETs) based on silicon carbide and gallium nitride technology are finding widespread use in many electronic applications such as motor control and DC/DC converters due to their higher voltage, higher temperature tolerance, and higher frequency switching capabilities. To utilize these power devices and to meet circuit/system compactness, modularity, and operational functionality, gate drivers that provide unique attributes, such as fast switching and high-current handling capability, are needed. In addition, power systems geared for use in space mission applications require on-board devices to withstand exposure to extreme temperatures and wide thermal swings. Very little data, however, exist on the performance of such devices and circuits under extreme temperatures. In this work, the performance of a high-speed gate driver with potential use in controlling power-level transistors was evaluated under extreme temperatures and thermal cycling. The investigations were carried out to assess performance for potential use of this device in space exploration missions under extreme temperature conditions.

Wide Bandgap Semiconductors↗
NASA NTRS2010

Integral Battery Power Limiting Circuit for Intrinsically Safe Applications

A circuit topology has been designed to guarantee the output of intrinsically safe power for the operation of electrical devices in a hazardous environment. This design uses a MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor) as a switch to connect and disconnect power to a load. A test current is provided through a separate path to the load for monitoring by a comparator against a preset threshold level. The circuit is configured so that the test current will detect a fault in the load and open the switch before the main current can respond. The main current passes through the switch and then an inductor. When a fault occurs in the load, the current through the inductor cannot change immediately, but the voltage drops immediately to safe levels. The comparator detects this drop and opens the switch before the current in the inductor has a chance to respond. This circuit protects both the current and voltage from exceeding safe levels. Typically, this type of protection is accomplished by a fuse or a circuit breaker, but in order for a fuse or a circuit breaker to blow or trip, the current must exceed the safe levels momentarily, which may be just enough time to ignite anything in a hazardous environment. To prevent this from happening, a fuse is typically current-limited by the addition of the resistor to keep the current within safe levels while the fuse reacts. The use of a resistor is acceptable for non-battery applications where the wasted energy and voltage drop across the resistor can be tolerated. The use of the switch and inductor minimizes the wasted energy. For example, a circuit runs from a 3.6-V battery that must be current-limited to 200 mA. If the circuit normally draws 10 mA, then an 18-ohm resistor would drop 180 mV during normal operation, while a typical switch (0.02 ohm) and inductor (0.97 ohm) would only drop 9.9 mV. From a power standpoint, the current-limiting resistor protection circuit wastes about 18 times more power than the switch and the inductor configuration. In the fault condition, both the resistor and the inductor react immediately. The resistor reacts by allowing more current to flow and dropping the voltage. Initially, the inductor reacts by dropping the voltage, and then by not allowing the current to change. When the comparator detects the drop in voltage, it opens the switch, thus preventing any further current flow. The inductor alone is not sufficient protection, because after the voltage drop has settled, the inductor would then allow the current to change, in this example, the current would be 3.7 A. In the fault condition, the resistor is flowing 200 mA until the fuse blows (anywhere from 1 ms to 100 s), while the switch and inductor combination is flowing about 2 A test current while monitoring for the fault to be corrected. Finally, as an additional safety feature, the circuit can be configured to hold the switch opened until both the load and source are disconnected.

Burns, Bradley M.↗
NASA NTRS1993

A low-power battery ampere-hour meter

A digital device has been developed to meter the current drain of a battery in ampere hours. The device consists of a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), a frequency divider, an accumulator, and a liquid crystal display. A voltage proportional to load current is converted into a clock signal whose pulse rate is scaled by the frequency divider to the desired engineering units. Final output pulses are counted and displayed. The use of MOSFET and CMOS integrated circuits allows continuous battery-powered operation over a 3-month time period to an accuracy of +/- 2 percent. The instrument will find application where accurate monitoring of battery charge/discharge status is required over long time intervals.

Tripp, John S.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Silicon device performance measurements to support temperature range enhancement

Silicon based power devices can be used at 200 C. The device measurements made during this program show a predictable shift in device parameters with increasing temperature. No catastrophic or abrupt changes occurred in the parameters over the temperature range. As expected, the most dramatic change was the increase in leakage currents with increasing temperature. At 200 C the leakage current was in the milliAmp range but was still several orders of magnitude lower than the on-state current capabilities of the devices under test. This increase must be considered in the design of circuits using power transistors at elevated temperature. Three circuit topologies have been prototyped using MOSFET's and IGBT's. The circuits were designed using zero current or zero voltage switching techniques to eliminate or minimize hard switching of the power transistors. These circuits have functioned properly over the temperature range. One thousand hour life data have been collected for two power supplies with no failures and no significant change in operating efficiency. While additional reliability testing should be conducted, the feasibility of designing soft switched circuits for operation at 200 C has been successfully demonstrated.

Bromstead, James↗
NASA NTRS1982

Design, production, and testing of field effect transistors

Cryogenic MOSFETS (CRYOFETS), specifically designed for low temperature preamplifier application with infrared extrinsic detectors were produced and comparatively tested with p-channel MOSFETs under matched conditions. The CRYOFETs exhibit lower voltage thresholds, high source-follower gains at lower bias voltage, and lower dc offset source voltage. The noise of the CRYOFET is found to be 2 to 4 times greater than the MOSFET with a correspondingly lower figure of merit (which is established for source-follower amplifiers). The device power dissipation at a gain of 0.98 is some two orders of magnitude lower than for the MOSFET. Further, CRYOFETs are free of low temperature I vs V character hysteresis and balky conduction turn-on effects and operate effectively in the 2.4 to 20 K range. These devices have promise for use on long term duration sensor missions and for on-focal-plane signal processing at low temperatures.

Sclar, N.↗
NASA NTRS1968

MOSFET operation at 4.2 K.

N and p channel MOSFET operation at 4.2 K noting noise, AC gain, power dissipation and deterioration under thermal cycling from room temperature

Green, R. R.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Inherent overload protection for the series resonant converter

The overload characteristics of the full bridge series resonant power converter are considered. This includes analyses of the two most common control methods presently in use. The first of these uses a current zero crossing detector to synchronize the control signals and is referred to as the alpha controller. The second is driven by a voltage controlled oscillator and is referred to as the gamma controller. It is shown that the gamma controller has certain reliability advantages in that it can be designed with inherent short circuit protection. Experimental results are included for an 86 kHz converter using power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs).

King, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1977

Differential multi-MOSFET nuclear radiation sensor

Circuit allows minimization of thermal-drift errors, low power consumption, operation over wide dynamic range, improved sensitivity and stability with metaloxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor sensors.

Deoliveira, W. A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design and Development of a Fluid Immersion Cooled, SiC MOSFET, 37.5 kW, Bi-Directional Motor Converter

NASA's SUb-sonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) aircraft is a concept aircraft whose architecture is that of a subsonic regional jet transport aircraft. SUSAN contains a single turbofan engine coupled to an electrified aircraft propulsion (EAP) system. To provide a path towards this goal, a 25% scale version of the SUSAN aircraft is being researched. A main component of the 25% power train is the Motor And Generator Intelligent Converter (MAGIC). This paper presents the design, development, and initial test results from MAGIC, a 37.5 kW, fluid immersion cooled, silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET-based, bi-directional converter and controller.

Immersion↗
NASA NTRS2011

The Feasibility of Railgun Horizontal-Launch Assist

Railguns typically operate for a few milliseconds, supplying thousands of G's of acceleration to a small projectile, resulting in exceptional speeds. This paper argues through analysis and experiment, that this "standard" technology can be modified to provide 2-3 G's acceleration to a relatively heavy launch vehicle for a time period exceeding several seconds, yielding a launch assist velocity in excess of Mach 1. The key insight here is that an efficient rail gun operates at a speed approximately given by the system resistance divided by the inductance gradient, which can be tailored because recent MOSFET and ultra-capacitor advances allow very low total power supply resistances with high capacitance and augmented railgun architectures provide a scalable inductance gradient. Consequently, it should now be possible to construct a horizontal launch assist system utilizing railgun based architecture.

Youngquist, Robert C.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Design and Development of a Fluid Immersion Cooled, SiC MOSFET, 37.5 kW, Bi-Directional Motor Converter

NASA's SUb-sonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) aircraft is a concept aircraft whose architecture is that of a subsonic regional jet transport aircraft. SUSAN contains a single turbofan engine coupled to an electrified aircraft propulsion (EAP) system. To provide a path towards this goal, a 25% scale version of the SUSAN aircraft is being researched. A main component of the 25% power train is the Motor And Generator Intelligent Converter (MAGIC). This paper presents the design, development, and initial test results from MAGIC, a 37.5 kW, fluid immersion cooled, silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET-based, bi-directional converter and controller.

PAO↗