Manufacturers of tethered drones are competing to maximize the payload within a given aircraft weight budget. A customer is designing a drone that is powered by a multi kilowatt power system based on transportation through cables. Without onboard batteries, drones can carry larger payloads. However, customers need to find a way to reduce the weight of the cable itself and further reduce the system weight.

SOLUTION

In order to minimize transmission losses caused by cable impedance and reduce the size and weight of the cable itself, a high voltage (400V) transmission solution was chosen. In order to achieve the high power required for unmanned aerial vehicles (24V/75A), four 300 VIN DCM DC-DC converter modules were used in parallel with integrated heat sinks to improve thermal management. Each DCM weighs 29.2 grams and measures 47.91 x 22.8 x 7.26 millimeters.

CONCLUSION

The DCM design is unique, and the device can serve as a single channel high output current DCM after simple parallel connection. The output is not derated in parallel. The footprint of the complete 1.8KW solution is only 43.69cm2, and the high power demand can be achieved in lightweight small packages, fully meeting the needs of this application. In addition, the high input voltage function of DCM helps customers use lighter cables.