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When reliability is paramount, who do power engineers rely on?

05Jan

Designing military-grade power electronics is a particular discipline that requires decades of technical and design expertise, says Karen Jay, Managing Director of Gresham Power Electronics.

Along with her colleague, Robin Shaffer, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer for Gresham Worldwide (parent of Gresham Power), she is responsible for navigating the demanding arena of military power electronics that is constantly evolving. There are a wide range of themes that impact design and integration for manufacturers. For example, power designers and integrators have to balance power delivery and power supply efficiency, to ensure systems meet the requirements of mission-critical systems which operate in some of the most demanding and hostile environments.

Another challenge is to optimise designs for size, weight, and power (SWaP), so that they can operate efficiently in air or land vehicles, that are finely balanced to maximise agility. Another consideration is to reduce heat through innovative thermal management techniques like liquid cooling. Power designers will also have to consider innovative design to develop power supply units (PSUs) suitable for a modular approach, and meet specific area or space requirements. Crucially, these PSUs must also be flexible and offer the capability for reconfiguration in the field, to meet changing conditions or use cases.

Read the full article in PBSI's January issue