NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster-Commercial (NEXT-C) project is tasked with developing flight electric propulsion systems, including both thrusters and power processing units (PPUs). In 2018, the beam supply in a NEXT-C engineering prototype PPU experienced an output rectifier diode failure during development thermal-vacuum testing. A failure investigation led by NASA GRC identified the root cause of the failure as a thermal runaway caused by increased reverse recovery losses in the diodes when the PPU was run at its maximum operating temperature. Significant reverse recovery performance variations were identified in diodes with the same part number but manufactured by different vendors. The failure investigation was able to collect evidence of the increased reverse recovery and replicate the diode failures in a controlled laboratory environment.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Investigation of Rectifier Diode Failures in the NEXT-C Power Processing Unit


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    2021 AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum ; 2021 ; Virtual, US


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Investigation of Rectifier Diode Failures in the NEXT-C Power Processing Unit

    Thomas, George L. / Fain, Henry B. / Pike, David C. et al. | AIAA | 2021


    INVESTIGATION OF RECTIFIER DIODE FAILURES IN THE NEXT-C POWER PROCESSING UNIT

    Thomas, George L. / Fain, Henry B. / Pike, David C. et al. | TIBKAT | 2021


    Investigation of Rectifier Diode Failures in the NEXT-C Power Processing Unit

    George L. Thomas / Henry B. Fain / Luis R. Pinero et al. | NTRS


    Investigation on 24-Pulse Diode Rectifier for More Electric Aircrafts

    Saini, Himanshu / N, Sandeep / P, Saravana Prakash | IEEE | 2023


    AUTOTRANSFORMER RECTIFIER UNIT

    VALDIVIA-GUERRERO VIRGILIO / DIAZ-LOPEZ DANIEL / PARKIN JOSHUA | European Patent Office | 2017

    Free access