Power Delivery for UAVs

Vicor's high-voltage tether transmission of 500 V to 800 V allows for greater tether lengths and smaller cabling, enabling drones to fly higher or travel longer distances underwater. The power delivery network (PDN) inside the vehicle must be capable of down-converting the tether's high voltage with high efficiency and power density to not take up important payload space. Tethered drone applications typically require a 1 kW to 5 kW ground power supply tethered to a rotor-wing UAV or UUV and offer unlimited run time and greater control.

Power Delivery Network

Using Vicor BCMs such as the BCM4414, a power solution can be created that enables optimized system performance. The BCM4414 provides 1.8 kW of power for either step-up or step-down conversion at 97%+ efficiency. At the ground station, the BCM4414 isolates and steps-down the rectified output from a single or 3-phase AC supply to 48 V. A second BCM4414 steps-up the 48 V to 800 V for transmission across the tether. A third BCM4414 is used to step-down the 800 V to 48 V onboard the vehicle. The use of the BCM4414 allows the power system designer to dramatically reduce the size and weight of both the ground supply and UAV, as well as to dramatically reduce the diameter and weight of the tether itself. The end result is a much more flexible and capable system that can be easily transported to the operating location.

Downstream of the BCM4414, zero-voltage switching (ZVS) buck regulators offer board-level designers maximum power density and flexibility for high-efficiency point-of-load (POL) DC-DC regulation. The integration of a high-performance ZVS topology increases POL performance, providing power efficiency up to 98%. ZVS regulators are highly integrated with control circuitry, power semiconductors, and support components in a high-density LGA, BGA, and system in package (SiP).

Diagram