Power Supply
Jerrold Foutz, President, SMPS Technology was the responsible engineer for the Minuteman D-37B guidance and control computer power supply study program which defined the state-of-art techniques later used in one of the first integrated-circuit military computers. These techniques included high-speed flat-pack power transistors and diodes (the first silicon power devices that could switch at 20 kHz and higher), high frequency dc-dc converters (100 kHz reduced to 20 kHz for reliability safety margins), high frequency pulse-width-modulated power supplies (20 kHz), metal substrate multilayer circuit boards (removing eight watts per cubic inch in space environment with 40C rise, junction to system heat sink), and radiation circumvention techniques that removed all electrical power from the power distribution system, including decoupling capacitors, in less than a 1 microsecond and restored to specified voltage in a few microseconds upon command. Responsible for developing these concepts from exploratory development through to the production design. The basic power supply configuration was maintained in later Minuteman missiles whereas other components underwent major redesigns. Also developed, but not used, was a complete liquid dielectric cooling system based on phase change. This study verified, for the first time, that such a system could work in zero-gravity, and that the liquid dielectric showed no compatibility problems with the chosen electronic components over a test period lasting eight years.
Read more about this topic: D-37C
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