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Completed TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 4)
To support the ever-growing demand to meet science objectives, engineers are required to fit even more electronics and instruments into spacecraft and rovers while squeezing every bit of efficiency out of them. Ultimately, however, more electronics usually equates to more power usage and subsequent power dissipation which requires intricate thermal management techniques. By implementing thermoelectric generators (TEGs) in power electronics, waste heat can be harvested and used for battery recharging or powering additional loads.
For this project, a test fixture containing dummy power electronic circuits will be mounted inside a structure that all sits inside a thermal chamber. The maximum TEG output voltage as a function of component power dissipation will be evaluated from milliwatts to Watts to determine the upper and lower thresholds of such a subsystem. Various TEGs and thermal interfaces to fix them to the components and structure will be evaluated for their efficacies. The TEGs will then be connected to a low-power DC-DC converter with a peak-power tracker to extract the maximum amount of energy, and the output will be used to charge a battery. The thermal chamber can be configured for subzero temperatures for large temperature deltas but also for warmer temperatures to evaluate TEG output power capability as a function of the temperature variation. For this reason, bipolar voltage converters will be implemented. Ultimately, this DC-DC converter will be connected in one test to a resistive load for evaluating the power delivery capability of the end-to-end system, and in another test to an energy storage unit (capacitor bank) to evaluate this system for long-term storage of electrical energy.
This technology can be extremely beneficial in all spaceflight applications as a means of reducing waste heat and improving end-to-end efficiencies of entire spacecraft power systems, but it is especially important for missions with more challenging temperature environments such as the drastic regimes of lunar day/night cycles and deep space missions to explore celestial bodies such as Uranus.
Apart from NASA applications, this technology would be beneficial in both military/DoD and even consumer electronics. Any device containing power electronics could benefit from this.
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