Project number
16080
Organization
Raytheon Missile Systems
Academic year
2016-2017
Sensitive electronic devices powered by 28-volt direct current military vehicle electrical systems need surge suppressors to ensure that transient voltage surges, spikes and ripple are within acceptable limits. Commercially available suppressors don’t fit the sponsor’s products, so the team was asked to design a small surge suppressor that would not require a costly and time-consuming redesign to implement.
The team’s design allows modern systems with sensitive electronics to interface with a wide range of military platforms and replaces bulky passive components with two metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors, or MOSFETs, configured in series to dissipate 100- and 250-volt surges and spikes as required by military standards.
The control circuitry allows for this dissipation to occur in two stages before finally clamping the output voltage at 33 volts. The intermediate clamping voltage between the two MOSFETs was tuned so that both components experience uniform heating.
The team’s design allows modern systems with sensitive electronics to interface with a wide range of military platforms and replaces bulky passive components with two metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors, or MOSFETs, configured in series to dissipate 100- and 250-volt surges and spikes as required by military standards.
The control circuitry allows for this dissipation to occur in two stages before finally clamping the output voltage at 33 volts. The intermediate clamping voltage between the two MOSFETs was tuned so that both components experience uniform heating.