The army has identified a need for solid-state DC to AC inverters to replace mechanical motor/generator sets as well as auxiliary power units in light military tactical and armored vehicles. These inverters are powered from 24 VDC and produce 120/240 VAC at 2.5kW each. Up to four of these inverters must be directly parallelable for easy scaling of system power. Typical AC loads include air conditioners, and maintenance and communication equipment. This proposal will outline the efforts required to demonstrate innovative techniques for directly paralleling AC outputs as well as improvements over the state of the art for DC-DC converters. In addition we will present a simple mechanical assembly and a unique method for connection of electrical inputs and outputs.
Benefits: The core technology presented can be scaled to any number of inverters in parallel and to smaller or larger module power levels. These inverters can be used in military as well as commercial applications as replacements for large, costly, and inefficient mechanical, engine driven AC generators, taking advantage of the typical surplus DC power available from vehicle battery/alternator systems
