California Institute of Technology

The United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of the

Space Systems/loral, LLC

Christopher Bryan Stell

Roman Gutierrez

Tony Kai Tang

Vatche Vorperian

William J Kaiser

Dan M Goebel

Ryan W Conversano

Peter W Lord

David Younghee Oh

Bao Hoang

Jorge Delgado

Lee Charles Rotlisberger

Gregory Alan Carr

Ansel Barchowsky

Vatché Vorperian

Kirill Shcheglov

Denis Trofimov

Jaroslava Wilcox

A flying capacitor multilevel (FCML) converter including a gate driver circuit comprising a DC-DC flyback converter having a plurality of isolated outputs. In various examples, the FCML circuit further includes a first control circuit connected to the FCML circuit determining the load current associated with a desired power output from the load; and determining a desired output voltage associated with the load current; a second control circuit that drives an inductor current (I) through the inductor so that the output applies an output voltage comprising the desired output voltage; and a third control circuit obtaining a comparison of an average of the inductor current (I) through the inductor with a predetermined reference current (I) and setting the duty cycle so that the average does not exceed the predetermined reference current. Also described is the converter driving a load comprising a plasma and a propulsion system comprising the converter.

Flying capacitor multilevel converters for anode supplies in hall effect thrusters

A spacecraft includes a power train that includes a solar array, an electric propulsion subsystem, and a power conversion module. The power conversion module receives power from the solar array at a voltage, V; and delivers power to the electric propulsion subsystem at a voltage, V. The spacecraft is configured to operate at a varying distance, D, from the sun within the range of Dto D, Dbeing at least 1.3&#xd7;D. The solar array is configured to deliver power to the power conversion module at a voltage approximately equal to Vwhen the spacecraft is proximate to D.

Power train for deep space solar electric propulsion

A pressure sensor has a high degree of accuracy over a wide range of pressures. Using a pressure sensor relying upon resonant oscillations to determine pressure, a driving circuit drives such a pressure sensor at resonance and tracks resonant frequency and amplitude shifts with changes in pressure. Pressure changes affect the Q-factor of the resonating portion of the pressure sensor. Such Q-factor changes are detected by the driving/sensing circuit which in turn tracks the changes in resonant frequency to maintain the pressure sensor at resonance. Changes in the Q-factor are reflected in changes of amplitude of the resonating pressure sensor. In response, upon sensing the changes in the amplitude, the driving circuit changes the force or strength of the electrostatic driving signal to maintain the resonator at constant amplitude. The amplitude of the driving signals become a direct measure of the changes in pressure as the operating characteristics of the resonator give rise to a linear response curve for the amplitude of the driving signal. Pressure change resolution is on the order of 10.sup.-6 torr over a range spanning from 7,600 torr to 10.sup.-6 torr. No temperature compensation for the pressure sensor of the present invention is foreseen. Power requirements for the pressure sensor are generally minimal due to the low-loss mechanical design of the resonating pressure sensor and the simple control electronics.

High resolution and large dynamic range resonant pressure sensor based

A gyroscope system can detect the amount of movement of the system. The gyroscope system includes a circuit that has a number of different features and detects movement independent of any circuit parameters. The first feature uses a feedback loop to compensate for difference in Q factors between the circuits. Another feature regulates the amplitude of the resonator. Yet another feature extracts the rotation rate signals from the gyroscope in a new way.

Gyroscopes and compensation

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Valencia, CA, United States of America

Christopher Bryan Stell