New very low power, high efficiency, DC/DC power supply for LEO satellite constellation

In this paper we present a 3 W DC/DC power supply for use in small LEO satellites. Efficiency achieved is well above 70% in the higher power range. For this low power level, (P/sub /spl theta/max/=3 W) the control consumption and driving circuit losses are critical and therefore two different resonant driving methods are presented. Both are based on a resonant drive technique used to drive the resonant forward with maximum efficiency. The new proposed power supply is short circuit protected, galvanic isolated, with three completely regulated outputs, has a high noise rejection and is fed from a regulated 50 V bus. Low weight and small size can be achieved using surface mounted devices and low profile cores or planar magnetic elements.