N112-139 TITLE: Radar/EW Aperture Cold Plate Innovation for Increased Thermal Performance

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: IWS 2.0 Developing Radar and EW Systems

OBJECTIVE: Develop and evaluated innovative affordable aperture level cold plate thermal management concepts to handle thermal dissipation from high power Electronic Warfare (EW)/Radars implementing Gallium Nitride(GaN) Power Amplifiers (PAs) and associated electronics.

DESCRIPTION: Aperture level thermal management for high power Navy solid state Electronic Warfare (EW)//Radars largely utilizes fluid flow within cold plates that interface with edge-cooled naval RF electronic assemblies in order to remove increasing amounts of thermal dissipation from Wide Bandgap RF electronics subassemblies containing multiple GaN power amplifiers. This increasing level of thermal dissipation for high power shipboard EW/Radars must be accomplished while interfacing with existing shipboard heat removal systems. Traditional cold plate technologies exhibit limited thermal performance and significant manufacturing cost. Existing approaches have relatively high thermal flow and hydraulic flow resistance and there is a limited supplier base for manufacturing these large cold plates. This topic seeks innovative modular cold plate design/manufacturing approaches with significantly improved performance that will be scalable, more affordable, and capable of higher power density. These approaches will provide improved efficiency and higher manufacturing yields as well as maintain or improve system level reliability and maintainability. Proposed technologies will demonstrate scalability to accommodate different aperture sizes. The selected technologies will improve system performance (2-3X reduced thermal resistance and a 3-4X reduction in hydraulic resistance relative to current cold plate technologies utilized in EW/Radar Systems), system level reliability and maintainability will be maintained or improved over existing systems and efficiency improved by 5% while reducing the electronics operating junction temperatures by 10-20 Degrees C. The selected technologies will also incorporate improved manufacturing technologies to reduce development, acquisition, and life-cycle costs.

PHASE I: Develop concepts and assess feasibility of proposed thermal management technology through modeling and empirical evaluations of key manufacturing and design features. Technical feasibility analysis will be conducted to determine whether the technology concept(s) will meet the stated topic performance objectives and transition potential.

PHASE II: Based on Phase I results, develop and evaluate prototype modular cold plate assemblies. Evaluation will affirm (1) the cold plate assembly addresses the mechanical and thermal objectives of the topic and (2) the assembly is compatible with high power operational shipboard solid state EW/Radar, and (3) that it will satisfy shipboard reliable and maintainable long-term operation within an operational shipboard solid state EW/Radar.

PHASE III: Refine the phase II prototype as necessary and incorporate into a shipboard solid-state high-power aperture design that is intended for integration and demonstration within an operating IWS 2.0 radar system.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The developed cold plate technologies will have technological applicability to many commercial and military avionics radars, all commercial radar applications, and all marine radar applications.

REFERENCES: 1. T. Kuppan (February 2000). Heat Exchanger Design Handbook (1st Edition ed.). CRC Press. ISBN 0-8247-9787-6.

2. Sadik Kakac and Hongtan Liu (March 2002). Heat Exchangers: Selection, Rating and Thermal Design (2nd Edition ed.). CRC Press. ISBN 0-8493-0902-6.

3. http://www.aavidthermalloy.com/technical/papers/pdfs/water.pdf

4. Incropera, F. P., and Dewitt, D. P., "Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer," 3rd Edition, Wiley Publishing, pp. 496-502.

KEYWORDS: Cold Plate, Aperture, Power Amplifier, Transmit/ Receive, GaN, Thermal Management, Radar, EW

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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