What kind of power supply design can make tethered drones carry more payload and fly farther?

Although drones started in the military field, their rapid and sustained market growth is mainly due to the expansion of drones in the civilian market. In the fields of construction, agriculture, energy, entertainment, law enforcement, firefighting, aerial surveying and mapping, drones are becoming more and more permeable and are defining a new "low-altitude economy" that is different from the traditional aviation industry. Taking China as an example, according to the plans of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments, by 2030, the low-altitude economy driven by the integration of general aviation equipment (led by drones) and various industries will form a trillion-level market size.

However, if you are in this emerging industry, while you are excited about the optimistic market expectations, you will definitely feel that this growth expectation is being restricted and hindered by traditional technologies. If you want drones to withstand the test of the market and users, you need to achieve a larger payload capacity and longer flight time (longer range), and traditional technologies obviously do not have this ability. At this time, new technologies and solutions are needed to provide "power".

In fact, people's expectations for new technologies are simple: considering that both load and range are related to their own weight, whoever can achieve lightweight, miniaturization and high efficiency of airborne equipment while ensuring the required performance and functions is the ideal solution! This core demand also affects all aspects of drone design and development.

Challenges of lightweight design of drone PDN

As we all know, the power of mainstream drones currently comes from electricity. At the same time, various devices on drones, such as sensors, cameras and communication equipment, also require power, which determines that the power supply network (PDN) is an indispensable link. How to improve the efficiency and reliability of PDN, reduce weight and size, and make room for larger payloads and functions has become an important proposition in drone design, which is also a key grasp for improving drone payload and range.

The requirements for lightweight drone PDN can be broken down into three design goals for power management:

Small and light: All power management components in PDN should be as small and light as possible, which is obvious. At the same time, considering that the total power of drones will continue to increase (based on the growing power and functional requirements), the power density of power management components must also increase, which is a great test of the design capabilities of related products.

High efficiency: Under constant power output, the higher the efficiency, the less unnecessary energy consumption during transmission and conversion, which is naturally beneficial to improving the endurance of drones. At the same time, high efficiency also helps to simplify the heat dissipation system, avoid the use of bulky heat dissipation components, and "reduce the burden" for drones.

Wide input range: In order to support more abundant power output, PDN needs to convert input voltages as high as hundreds of volts and then distribute the power to various power loads, so a wide input range is also an important design consideration. In addition, the solution also needs to be scalable. For example, as the power demand of drones increases, the power supply can be easily expanded through simple parallel connection.

To achieve the above goals, it is necessary to make comprehensive optimizations from system architecture to modules/devices on each power management node based on a deep understanding of drone application requirements to form an ideal solution. In this regard,SYXETEC is a master.

SYXETEC Professional-grade dc-dc converter for tethered drone onboard airborne power supply solution
1. Adopt well-known power supply in the industry, isolated circuit design, to ensure the safety of high-voltage power transmission.
2. Follow the international standard 1000Vdc solution, mature and reliable.
3. Redundant load design to ensure stable long-term power supply and long-term flight safety.
4. Ultra-precision voltage stabilization circuit, constant voltage stabilization accuracy up to +1.5%, industry-leading.
5. The output voltage is stable and is not affected by the reduction of input voltage.
6. Imitation original battery design, easy replacement, seamless switching when power off.
7. Patented rainproof design, perfect coordination with FC30 drone, no fear of wind and rain.
8. Can work at full power for a long time without derating or burning.
9. Aviation cable load current redundant design to ensure power supply and flight safety.
10. Our 20KW power supply weighs only 5kg, half the weight compared to other products!