Punching Out: What Do Buyers Expect?
Material Insight: A Conversation with Congressman Blake Moore
It’s Only Common Sense: Going Well Beyond the NormPOWER Program Selects Teams to Design Power Beaming Relays
September 11, 2023 | DARPAEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
DARPA is entering the first phase of the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program, aimed at revolutionizing energy distribution through airborne wireless power transfer. Three teams—led by RTX Corporation, Draper Laboratory, and BEAM Co.—will design and develop wireless optical power relays. The program goals include demonstrating the key components necessary for a resilient, speed-of-light energy network.
“This project has the potential to advance power beaming by orders of magnitude, which could radically reshape society’s relationship with energy,” said Dr. Paul Jaffe, who leads the POWER program at DARPA. “A wireless energy web could unlock power from new and diverse sources, including from space, and rapidly and reliably connect them to energy-starved consumers.”
To support rapid development, the optical energy relays designed in POWER’s phase one will be demonstrated in pods carried by existing aircraft in the project’s second phase. Additionally, power beaming will enable smaller, less expensive future aircraft since fuel storage and engine volume could be dramatically reduced. This will be explored through conceptual designs in phase one. Eventually these new, small, distributed platforms could provide cost-effective aircraft with unlimited range and endurance to support military missions. Each relay design will be evaluated based on accurate and efficient energy redirection, wavefront correction for high beam quality, and throttleable energy harvesting. In the third and final phase of the program, the relays will be demonstrated through an airborne optical pathway that aims to deliver 10 kilowatts of optical energy to a ground receiver that is 200 kilometers away from the ground source laser.
“Energy underpins every human activity, including defense. We need ways to deliver energy that overcome the vulnerabilities and other shortcomings of our current paradigm,” explains Jaffe. “The next leap forward in optical power beaming could hinge on relay technologies.”
Effective relays are a critical missing component necessary for a practical, flexible, and adaptive wireless energy web. These relays will overcome the unacceptable conversion losses that occur when changing from propagating waves to electricity repeatedly in a multiple-hop network. Relays also enable high-altitude transmission, which is vastly more efficient than beaming power through the thick, turbulent, lower atmosphere. This high-altitude optical layer will provide the long-range, high throughput backbone for the wireless energy web.
“Each of the selected teams proposed unique technical approaches to the power beaming relay problem, ranging from novel combinations of existing technologies to high-risk, high-reward technological innovations,” said Jaffe. “The range of proposed solutions encompasses a balance of assured performance and potential breakthroughs in size, weight, and power to enable small distributed systems for the future wireless energy web.”
The first phase will include benchtop demonstrations of critical technologies and is expected to last 20 months with potential for a three-month option of additional risk reduction efforts. The second phase will involve an open solicitation in early 2025 and will focus on integration of the relay technologies onto an existing platform for a low-power, airborne demonstration.
Share on:
Suggested Items
RTX, DARPA to Revolutionize Gallium Nitride Technology for Improved Radio Frequency Sensors
11/20/2023 | PRNewswireRaytheon, an RTX business, has been awarded a four-year, $15 million contract from DARPA to increase the electronic capability of radio frequency sensors with high-power-density Gallium Nitride transistors. Raytheon is the world's leading manufacturer of military-grade Gallium Nitride, a cutting-edge semiconductor technology that, when used in radar systems, improves range and radar resource management handling. This new prototyping work is being performed under DARPA's Technologies for Heat Removal in Electronics at the Device Scale program, known as THREADS.
RTX, DARPA to Revolutionize Gallium Nitride Technology for Improved Radio Frequency Sensors
11/17/2023 | Raytheon CompanyRaytheon, an RTX business, has been awarded a four-year, $15 million contract from DARPA to increase the electronic capability of radio frequency sensors with high-power-density Gallium Nitride transistors which will have 16 times higher output than traditional GaN with no increase in operating temperature. Raytheon is partnering with the Naval Research Laboratory, Stanford University and Diamond Foundry to grow diamond, the world's best thermal conductor, for integration with military-grade GaN transistors and circuits. Cornell University, Michigan State University, the University of Maryland and Penn State University are also providing technology and performance analysis.
U.S. Circuit Acquires AS9100 Certification
11/03/2023 | U.S. CircuitU.S. Circuit, a premier supplier of commercial and mil/aero PCBs, has recently obtained their AS9100 certification. This certification will allow U.S. Circuit to further expand their military and aerospace offerings to further serve sectors requiring stricter regulation including the Department of Defense (DoD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Defence Leaders Recognise Need to Adapt to Win in ‘Information Battlespace’, Reveals BAE Systems
10/17/2023 | BUSINESS WIRENew research has found that 95% of military and defence industry decision-makers recognise that ongoing digitalisation has led to a more dynamic and complex ‘information battlespace’ and a further 93% agree defence will require increased integration across domains.
Amitron Becomes MIL-SPEC Certified
10/03/2023 | AmitronAmitron, a leading U.S.-based manufacturer of printed circuit boards (PCB), brings an additional 80,000 square feet of manufacturing space into the overall MIL-SPEC ecosystem with high automation, and the latest equipment technology and processes for military and aerospace applications.