Article

Scalable, low weight DC-DC solution with high capacitive loads

We recently had a customer that had a variety of unique power system challenges that needed to be overcome. One of these challenges required configuring one of our many DC-DC DCM modules to provide a specific input and output voltage range. System requirements were:

• The power design had to be lightweight, and have a small footprint due to limited space
• The application utilized a large bulk capacitor and had to operate from a constant current source
• Due to the requirement to avoid interference with associated equipment, the DC-DC converters needed to maintain a constant switching frequency
• The customer wanted to leverage this solution with several other platforms and applications with the same input voltage but different load voltages

Using our Power Component Design Methodology we developed a solution using a mix of standard power components, plus specifically configured DCM DC-DC converter modules. Two DCM4623 converters were selected from our component library and configured to operate from a unique 210V nominal input voltage but with different output voltages.

Eight of the first DCMs were configured in parallel to create a high power 3.2kW, isolated and regulated 22V output. This array fed the large bulk capacitor of 200mF.  The second DCM was configured to create a 53V output, which was then fed into a pair of Bus Converter Modules (BCMs) to create an efficient, regulated 300W, 3.3V output.

The inherent benefits of the power components used in the design meant that the system had high power density, allowing it to be very small size and lightweight. As with all systems using the Power Component Design Methodology, the system was straightforward to implement, and the short-lead time, cost-effective configured DCM capability offered by Vicor avoided the delays and NRE typically associated with application-specific converters.

Additionally, the DCMs’ constant switching frequency simplified the filtering required to avoid interference affecting associated sensitive equipment.

By using the Power Component Design Methodology, the customer was able to create a highly flexible, efficient solution that met their performance and time to market objectives.