The primary object of the Phase I effort was to design a Million Ampere, energy-storage device, using a novel, close-coupled thermopile concept. Three different energy storage variants were developed and tested during Phase I. Each was based on the close-coupled, thermopile storage principle. First, direct current was stored in a thermopile ring, which was open-switched into a dummy load to measure the energy release. In the second variant, alternating magnetic energy was stored, caused by pumping alternating current in the thermopile curcuit, connected as an LC oscillator. Both methods stored energy and delivered pulse power with a twenty-to-one gain between energy-stored and energy-in. Power was drawn from these systems in a millisecond, using a specially developed, sequentially opening switch that takes full advantage of the MOSFET's nanosecond operating speed. Further work led then to the development of the inductor-to-inductor (L^2) electromagnetic storage system. This device out performs the first two concepts by two orders of magnitude in storage capacity, and can even be tuned to operate at frequency steps between 50 HZ and 50 MHz, possibly into the GHz range. Phase II development of the L^2 technology will test a full-scale power supply demonstrator.
Keywords: Storage Ring Thermopile Power Electromagnetic Induction
