Vicor engineers take you through power solutions for tethered, aerial/underwater drones

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Vicor engineers take you through power solutions for tethered, aerial/underwater drones [Copy link]

Tethered, aerial/underwater drones

These drones are powered and controlled from a ground power source via a tether. High-voltage tether transmission of 500V to 800V enables longer and thinner cables, helping aerial drones fly higher and underwater drones travel farther. The power network inside the vehicle must be able to step down the high voltage of the tether with high efficiency and power density without taking up critical payload space. Tethered drone applications typically require a 1-5kW ground power supply tethered to a rotary wing drone or underwater drone, providing unlimited run time and better control.

Power supply network

Using Vicor BCMs such as the Vicor BCM4414, a power solution can be created to achieve optimized system performance. The BCM4414 provides 1.8kW of power and is capable of buck-boost conversion with over 97% efficiency. At the ground power station, the BCM4414 isolates the rectified output and steps it down to 48V from a single-phase or three-phase AC source. A second BCM4414 steps up the 48V to 800V for transmission over the tether. A third BCM4414 is used to step down the airborne voltage from 800V to 48V. Using the BCM4414, power system designers can significantly reduce the size and weight of not only the ground power supply and the drone, but also the diameter and weight of the tether itself. The end result is a more flexible and capable system that can be easily transported to the job site.

Downstream of the BCM4414, the ZVS Buck regulator provides board-level designers with the highest power density and flexibility for efficient point-of-load DC-DC regulation. The integrated high-performance zero voltage switching (ZVS) topology improves point-of-load performance, resulting in industry-best power efficiency of up to 98%. The ZVS regulator is highly integrated with control circuitry, power semiconductors, and supporting components in a high-density LGA system-in-package (SiP).

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