SBIR-STTR Award

Todays Navy continues to see increased demand for more power both on and off the ship. This need is largely driven by the continued development of high power density advanced weapons systems and sensors. Continued space and weight limitations for these ship applications will drive the need for new power solutions to be light and compact, easing installation on new ships and enabling upgrades on existing ones. To meet this need, highly efficient methods of transferring large amounts of power are being investigated by NSWC Carderock in Philadelphia through the use of High temperature Superconductors (HTS). Although the team in Philadelphia is developing these high capacity, compact power cables, there is no active development for the connectors that these extremely power dense cables will need if they are to integrated at the ship level. American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) has gained experience in the development, design and manufacture of low voltage DC HTS cable connectors through its partnership with NSWC on the HTS advanced degaussing program. Although high capacity AC power cable connectors will be dramatically different than their low voltage DC counterparts, AMSC is nonetheless uniquely positioned to successfully develop this type of low temperature, thermally isolated, electrical connection.

Benefit:
Development of the connector proposed in this project will allow the implementation of high capacity AC power cables that are currently under development at NSWC and ONR. These high capacity power cables will be needed shortly to support the implementation of several high power density weapons and sensor systems that are in late stages of development. The ability to effectively implement the high capacity AC power cables taht are needed will be significnatly restricted without the assistance of a reliable, robust, efficient cable connector.

Keywords:
AC Power Cable, AC Power Cable, HTS Connnnector, Cable Connector

Todays Navy continues to see increased demand for more power both on and off the ship (shore power). This need is driven by many factors. The most important of which is the continued development of high power density advanced weapons systems and sensors. Many power dense applications that naval engineers are working on today are already relying on the independent development of improved power cables for their implementation. Free Electron Lasers, High Power Radar, Laser Self Defense Systems, Electro Magnetic Rail Guns and Active Denial (Directed Energy) systems are just a few of the Navy applications that will need higher capacity, more efficient power cables before deployment to a platform in the fleet can be realized. However, despite the clear need for these high capacity cables, there is not yet a program focused on the connection points of these cables. Cable connection will be a critical component of any implementation effort and an area that desperately needs attention now to insure the proper TRL can be achieved at the time of need. That is the focus of this effort

Benefit:
Increases Navy's ability to implement power dense applications (weapons system) being independently developed in surface combatants. High capacity cable connectors will facilitate the implementation of high capacity power cables in data center applications as well as other government research such as electric plane etc.

Keywords:
Robust, High Capacity, HTS, power cable, superconductor, Lightweight, power dense.