In a new development, a team of researchers at the Power Electronics Lab, Utah State University have developed a voltage power converter from direct current to direct current. The converter is equipped to serve long distance and requires minimal maintenance, which makes it particularly useful for underwater power distribution
Meanwhile, for years, scientists have been interested to construct power networks on ocean floors for a number of reasons, including ocean exploration, earthquake, marine resource development, and tsunami monitoring. But, since the networks often include main power supply tens or hundreds of miles away on land, this development serves for long distance communication via sensors on the seabed.
In fact, direct current source is the most efficient option for long-distance transfer of signal due to its viability. However, there are not many converters that are designed to operate using direct current as their input source.
“Conventionally, power converters are designed for voltage sources, and well-established ones are available to deal with such inputs,” stated the research lead. However, only a few are available or suitable for use with direct current as input source.
Importantly, the converter’s output is as much significant as its input. Most of the seabed sensors currently used are designed to run from a direct current voltage source. Due to this limitation, they cannot be directly operated by a current source.
With this innovation, it provides a power converter architecture that converts direct current source to a drive of direct current voltage source. Moreover, the architecture of the power converter is characteristic of maintaining output of voltage source over a wide spectrum of power levels.