Primarily because of its low cost and ease of implementation, analogue control has been the dominant control strategy in modern switch-mode power supply designs. The 'on/off' nature of power switches is essentially digital, which makes it tempting for power elec- tronics engineers to combine the emerging capability of digital technologies with existing switch-mode power supply designs. Whereas an analogue controller is usually cheaper to implement, it lacks the flexibility and capacity to implement the complex control func- tions which a digital controller can offer. The research presented in this thesis addresses the practical implementation of a digi- tal controller for a Series-Loaded Resonant Converter (SLR). The resonant frequency of the SLR converter is around 60 kHz, and the switching frequency varies up to around 80 kHz to regulate the 12V dc output voltage across a 100W, variable resistive load, from a variable 46.6V 60.2V input voltage. This provides a fair challenge for digital waveform generators as the digital processor needs to have a high clock rate to produce high speed, high resolution and linearly varying frequency square waves, to regulate the output volt- age with adequate resolution. Digital compensation algorithms also need to be efficient to minimise the phase lag caused by the instruction overhead. In order to completely understand the control needs of the SLR converter, an analogue controller was constructed using a UC3863N. The feedback compensation consists of an error amplifier in an integrator configuration. Digital control is accomplished with a TMS320F2812 Digital Signal Processor (DSP). Its high throughput of 150 MIPS provides sufficient resolution to digitally generate linearly varying frequency switching signals util- ising Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS). Time domain analysis of the switching signals, shows that the DDS generated square iv ABSTRACT waves display evidence of jitter to minute variations in pulse-widths caused by the digi- tisation process, while in the frequency domain, this jitter displays itself as additional sidebands that deteriorate the fundamental frequency of the switching signal. Overall, DDS generated square waves are shown experimentally to be adequate as control signals for the MOSFET power switches. Experiments with step load changes show the digi- tal controller is able to regulate the output voltage properly, with the drawback of the settling time being a little longer than the analogue counterpart, possibly caused by the unpredictable damping effects of switching signal jitter. Variations in input voltage shows that the digital controller excels at operating under noisier conditions, while the analogue controlled output has slightly greater noise as input voltage is increased. As the digital technology continues to improve its speed, size and capacity, as well as becoming more affordable, it will not be long before it becomes the leading form of control circuitry in power supplies.

Since their conception in 1999, CubeSats have come and gone a long way. The first few that went into space were more of a “proof of concept,” and were more focused on sending simple data and photographs back to Earth. Since then, vast improvements have been made by over 40 universities and private firms, and now CubeSats are beginning to look towards interplanetary travel. These small satellites could provide a cost effective means of exploring the galaxy, using off the shelf components and piggy-backing on other launch vehicles with more expensive payloads. However, CubeSats are traditionally launched into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and if an interplanetary satellite is to go anywhere from there, it will need a propulsion system. This thesis project’s main goal will be to investigate the possibility and capability of an Ion-Spray propulsion system. Several problems are to be tackled in this project: how to take a 9 V supply and boost it to a maximum potential difference of 5,000 V, all while minimizing the noise and testing the feasibility of such a system being flown on board a CubeSat.

This report presents a project that has been made to present the design of a planar transformer as a part of a series loaded resonant DC/DC converter in a power unit. The design is based on an existing transformer that is not planar and so the characteristics of the transformer is translated into a planar version. A multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) design was made to fit a chosen magnetic ferrite core that was chosen based on the magnetic characteristics of the old core. Calculations were made for the loss of both core and windings and the final results show that it is possible to design a planar transformer from a traditional transformer.