Phase II Base objectives include the development of a new lighting architecture, employing highly reliable flight deck lighting controls and driver technologies that can control new and existing LED lighting. These technologies will be capable of being embedded into or located near flight deck lighting fixtures onboard U.S. Navy Air Capable Platforms.
Benefit: The Phase II Smart Universal Module (SUM) and Flux Gate Power Supply (FGPS) technology development will result in a system that significantly reduces installation, infrastructure, logistics, operations, and maintenance costs for the U.S. Navy operating fleet while improving flexibility and equipment reliability. The SUM and FGPS concepts will have significantly lengthy operating cycles between failures/repairs with dramatic reduction in Total Cost of Ownership. The universally modular and standardized approach to equipment designs for the SUM Driver Adaptation Modules (DAMs) and the FGPS will result in reductions of individual equipment inventory requirements and costs savings from quantity manufacturing. Standardized module interfaces will reduce the impact of design modifications and hardware improvements to interfacing with sub-assemblies and assemblies. Intelligent lamp features and auto-configuration capabilities reduce installation, repair and replacement times, while reducing error rates associated with those events. Designing lighting drivers with a broad compatibility range will reduce sensitivities to technology growth in LEDs. Highly flexible power distribution technologies and daisy chain power and communication technologies will significantly reduce installation costs. Universal, modular power supply technologies as proposed for the design of the FGPS with remote configuration capabilities will reduce inventory requirements, and simplify crew training for installation and repair costs. The commercial applications of the technology development include the potential to dramatically reduce the operating voltage of commercial airfield lighting, resulting in significant power supply cost reductions, wiring installation cost reductions and greatly improved personnel safety from high voltage hazards. The output control and energy harvesting technologies of the FGPS will result in improved reliabilities, improved delivered power efficiencies, and reductions in manufacturing costs stemming from the ability to produce a universal supply in place of separate individual supplies. The ability to remotely configure the power supply for an application potentially provides savings to system designers. The modular approach to the SUM provides the ability to manufacture a standard communication interface and append to it the appropriate driver module for the application at hand. This approach has the promise of providing a standard methodology for the drive and control of highly distributed LED lighting.
Keywords: Universal Flux Gate Power Supplies for LED Lighting, Current Transformer and Pulse Width Modulated LED Driver Adaptation Modules, Low Voltage Constant Current Inductively Coupled LED Lighting Systems, Highly Flexible and Reliable LED Lighting Systems, Smart Universal Modules for LED Lighting