Low Voltage, High Current Power Converter for High Power Integrated Circuits

The increased computational capabilities of digital load implemented in new generation of satellite combined with supply voltage reduction call for DC/DC converter with low voltage and high current capabilities. The satellites requesting the highest digital processing power have, most of the time, a 100 V regulated bus for the power distribution. To answer to this demand, it is important to work on low volume, high efficiency DC/DC converters able to deliver a low voltage (around 1 V) and high current (50 A) from a 100 V regulated power bus. This paper presents the converter architecture and the technical solutions selected for a low voltage high current DC/DC converter powered from a 100 V bus. After a reminder on the main requirements, potential solutions are listed and compared, then the selected solution is detailed. Characteristics of one of the key component which is the matrix transformer are provided. Converter breadboard description concludes the article.