Design of a Novel Converter Between Li-Ion Battery and Supercapacitor to Feed Synthetic Aperture Radar Loads for Satellite Applications

Abstract

For satellite applications the active duty life of a satellite depends mainly on the battery lifespan. The charging or discharging current has an important role in useful life of batteries. For this purpose, the converters used in power supplies including batteries should be accurately designed such that the large current of batteries can be prevented. The power converter proposed in this paper is used to transfer energy from battery to supercapacitor when SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) load is active. Accordingly, the lifespan of battery and hence the lifespan of satellite will be extended. Parallel to preventing the large discharging current of batteries the proposed converter has another important property such that it is able to vary the input voltage without having any stability problems. The operating performance of the converter that is composed of Weinberg and Buck converters is analyzed using PSpice software and the results of simulations are verified through experiments. The results show that how well the converter operates satisfying the conditions required for satellite applications.