Description: Power systems are the core heartbeat of any advanced vehicle. Reliability and flexibility of these systems are therefore of the highest priority. This Phase 1 project proposes a highly efficient and modular isolated bidirectional DC converter for battery energy applications. GridBridge is utilizing advanced DC converter topologies for modernization of the today's electrical distribution power grid and will translate work into high priority NASA power system applications, demonstrating transferability, robustness, and scalability. This bidirectional DC converter offers an extremely high power density and will utilize a novel hybrid resonance and PWM technique to achieve. It will also offer NASA the flexibility for many power system topologies, including: distributing large single cells throughout the vehicle, use of smaller cells in a centralized location, or a combination banked smaller cells distributed throughout the system. This is accomplished through independent charging and discharging control of state-of-charge and state-of-health for each battery module, inherent active maximum current limit and short-circuit protection, and ease of module balancing.

Benefits: Highly efficient modular DC converters are coveted throughout numerous applications due to the increased flexibility and reliability they offer to the power system. In terms of flexibility, the modular DC converters offer the ability to design a centralized or decentralized power system topology. This is certainly relevant within electric propulsion systems of vehicles and is therefore a primary target application. The benefits related catastrophic containment and mass distribution can be analyzed, each benefiting from the availability of a modular DC converter. Additionally, cost avoidance is important. Many redundant power systems can be avoided through the self-healing (rerouting) nature of battery strings incorporating modular DC converters. Additionally, each cell can be monitored independently, therefore eliminating much of the system monitoring that is currently required in electric propulsion and radioisotope applications. The initial targeted customers are SMD's In-space Propulsion Technology and Radioisotope Power Systems programs. The modular approach and promise of scalability though means this technology could be adaptable and transferable to various space applications, including the Orion, Constellation, and many other programs.

Highly efficient modular DC converters can be utilized in numerous grid applications, including integration of solar, wind, electric vehicle charging, and energy storage.