The Effects of γ-Radiation on the Physical and Electrical Properties of Silicone Encapsulation for Electronic Power Conditioners

Cong Hu (), Wei Zheng, Bin Zhao, Yu Fan, Hong Li, Kun Zheng and Gang Wang ()
Additional contact information
Cong Hu: Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
Wei Zheng: Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
Bin Zhao: Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
Yu Fan: Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
Hong Li: Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
Kun Zheng: Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on High-Tech Polymer Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Gang Wang: Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Since the electronic power conditioner (EPC) is a crucial part of a space traveling-wave tube amplifier (STWTA), its reliability issue must be considered. The most effective way to prevent insulation breakdown is potting. Silicone elastomers are commonly used as an encapsulant for the EPC because of their good physical and electrical properties. The properties of the encapsulant and the interfaces change under the influence of γ-radiation, which may result in the failure of the potted modules. In this work, a comprehensive evaluation methodology is proposed for silicone-based potted modules, where besides physical and electrical properties, the effect of γ-radiation on the encapsulated interface is also considered. The results show that with the increase of the irradiation dose, the crosslinking density, hardness, elastic modulus, volume resistivity, dielectric constant, and storage modulus are increased by 301.6%, 76.3%, 289.7%, 396.1%, 5.0%, and 589.8%, respectively. In contrast, the elongation at break and dielectric loss factor are decreased by 83.8% and 57.8%. In addition, the tensile strength and breakdown strength first increase and then decrease, while the coefficient of thermal expansion of the interface shows the opposite trend. Since the interface bonding state does not change and the electric field strength of the tip decreases slightly with an increasing dielectric constant, the average value of the partial discharge inception voltage increased slightly.

Keywords: space traveling-wave tube amplifier; electronic power conditioner; silicone encapsulation; ?-radiation; interface discharge; interface bonding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/2028/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/2028/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:4:p:2028-:d:1072824

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().